WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins recently announced a sweeping reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at streamlining operations, reducing overhead, and realigning the agency with its core mission of supporting American farmers, ranchers, and foresters.
The initiative follows an internal review that identified significant inefficiencies, including an 8% workforce expansion and a 14.5% increase in salaries over the past four years—growth that the department says lacked sustainable funding and failed to improve service delivery. The USDA’s footprint in the National Capital Region (NCR) was singled out for costly deferred maintenance, low occupancy, and redundant functions.
“President Trump was elected to make real change in Washington, and we are doing just that by moving our key services outside the beltway and into great American cities across the country,” said Secretary Rollins. She emphasized that critical public safety and national security roles, including wildfire management and food safety inspections, would remain fully operational and exempt from staffing reductions.
The restructuring is guided by four key objectives:
- Right-size the workforce to match financial and strategic priorities.
- Relocate operations to better serve stakeholders across the nation.
- Cut bureaucratic layers.
- Consolidate duplicative support functions.
A phased plan will relocate a significant portion of USDA staff—currently about 4,600 in the NCR—to five new regional hubs: Raleigh, NC; Kansas City, MO; Indianapolis, IN; Fort Collins, CO; and Salt Lake City, UT. Washington, D.C. will retain a scaled-down USDA presence, with no more than 2,000 staff expected to remain.
As part of the move, USDA will exit several underutilized and maintenance-heavy facilities, including the South Building and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. The South Building alone requires an estimated $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance, yet operates at less than one-third occupancy.
Rollins stressed the agency’s commitment to a “transparent and common-sense process” that respects both taxpayers and employees. To date, 15,364 staff have opted into the Deferred Retirement Program, a voluntary separation option intended to ease workforce reductions.
The reorganization marks the first phase of a broader transformation effort, with further changes anticipated in the months ahead.
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