Moving USDA research units from D.C. to K.C. made them less productive, cost them many veteran staff, GAO says

The General Accounting Office has found that the Trump administration damaged the research agencies of the Department of Agriculture by moving them out of Washington.

The number of journal articles by the Economic Research Service fell by more than half, and the National Institite of Food and Agriculture "took longer to process grants," GAO reports. By fall 2021, "productivity had largely recovered," but "the agencies’ workforce was composed mostly of new employees with less experience."

The moves of the agencies to Kansas City were also somewhat haphazard, GAO indicated, saying USDA did not follow some "leading practices for effective agency reforms and strategic human-capital management. For example, USDA minimally involved employees, Congress, and other key stakeholders in relocating the agencies. In addition, both agencies partially followed, or did not generally follow, many of the leading practices related to strategic workforce planning, training and development, and diversity management."

Then-Agriculture Sonny Perdue promised “a rigorous site selection process” that would lead to “attracting highly-qualified staff,” but GAO says the process “excluded estimated employee attrition rates” and “limited the ability of USDA leadership to ensure that it was making an appropriately informed decision on relocating.”

"Instead of attracting employees as Perdue promised, the move quickly decimated the workforce, trashed employee morale, shunned employee input and slashed the number of Black employees at the agencies," reports Joe Davidson of The Washington Post. The relocations “resulted in a significant loss of institutional knowledge, talent, and diversity on staff that will take time and intentionality to fully rebuild,” USDA press secretary Marissa Perry told Davidson.

"USDA officials told GAO auditors the relocation decision, which President Biden has not reversed, 'was the sole decision of the secretary'," Davidson reports. "Perdue, now chancellor of the University System of Georgia, and its media office did not respond to questions submitted by email."

Davidson notes, "During the Trump administration, the Interior Department also moved an agency headquarters west and received similarly negative reviews" from GAO. The Bureau of Land Management headquarters moved to Grand Junction, Colo., but is moving back to Washington, D.C.