Craig leads House Ag Dems to question Rollins on reorganization
Almost all Democratic members of the House Agriculture Committee, led by Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., sent Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins a letter Wednesday questioning her about the Trump administration’s reorganization of USDA, which includes transferring 2,600 of the 4,600 positions in the Washington metropolitan area to five locations around the country.
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, “The lack of consultation and seeming lack of evaluation and analysis prior to issuing this plan demonstrates a concerning failure to learn the lessons from similar efforts undertaken by USDA during the first Trump administration.”
“As members of the committee with jurisdiction over USDA, we are deeply concerned that the department’s proposal will make it less effective and significantly hinder its ability to provide the customer service and support our farmers and rural communities deserve,” the letter said.
“To proceed in this manner while ignoring both the actual results from previous similar relocation/reorganization efforts and the multiple findings and recommendations by GAO regarding such earlier efforts demonstrates such a high level of indifference as to show a complete lack of respect for the hard working men and women of the department and the Americans who depend on its services, particularly our farmers and ranchers,” the Democrats wrote.
The most significant part of the letter contains detailed questions dealing with many issues that Rollins has not addressed publicly.
For example, the Democrats ask, “Will NRCS [the Natural Resources Conservation Service] be split amongst the five ‘hub locations’ or will it be located in a single ‘hub?’ If that decision has not yet been made, what factors or analysis will it be based upon?”
Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., who represents an area near Kansas City, Mo., where the Trump administration plans to move some positions, did not sign the letter.
The other locations or “hubs,” as the Trump administration calls them, are Raleigh N.C., Indianapolis, Ind., Fort Collins, Colo., and Salt Lake City, Utah.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., also expressed to Politico an “observation” rather than a “complaint” that both lawmakers and farmers appreciate having key USDA employees in Washington.
In an interview published today, Thompson said, “It’s kind of nice as a lawmaker to be able to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, could somebody come up to the Hill this afternoon, to talk about whatever the topic is?’ I know there’s going to be 1,000 employees … in Washington [who] can do that.”
“I think there’s also one-stop shopping for my farmers and farm groups who come to Washington. They frequently have meetings, not just with my members or me, but they’ll also go down and meet the USDA. Maybe that agency is going to be halfway across the country now.”
