Posted on 05/23/2019 3:00:27 PM PDT by RightGeek
Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are quitting at a rapid clip as Secretary Sonny Perdue prepares to move forward with plans to relocate two offices far outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway.
Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – two small but important agencies within the USDA – are unhappy with Perdue’s plan, announced last August, to move the majority of their staff from current offices in the capital to an area closer the country’s agricultural centers.
“This move does not serve a public purpose,” Peter Winch, a representative for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents ERS workers, told Fox News. “Employees don’t want to move, and it doesn’t make sense for them to move.”
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Winch added that since ERS employees joined AFGE earlier this month, six employees have already quit their jobs with the government agency in response to the planned move. He said overall staffing is down to 209 from 300 during the Obama administration.
A Washington Post report cited an estimate that the ERS used to see roughly one “non-retirement” departure per month – but that pace has doubled since October. NIFA reportedly has also seen people leave.
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Perdue and his staff have narrowed the list of places where the two agencies could go down to three from an original 130 -- with Kansas City, the state of Indiana and North Carolina’s research triangle in the Raleigh-Durham area on the shortlist. St. Louis, Mo., and Madison, Wis., are two alternate locations.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“What do DC metrosexuals know about farming and ranching?, education?, oil and gas production?, raising kids.....”
Enough to be dangerous.
They might be less prone to give poor advice to their neighbors.
Farmers/Ranchers and people raised on farms/ranches should be the ones hired. Then they live where their clients live.
Seems like a plan. Why should political offices be so far away from the people they purport to serve? I’m not exactly positive how this would all work out, but having the USDA in farm country might serve a good purpose. At least the people working at the USDA might get a little insight on how a real farm operates instead of just depending on lobbyist’s views.
Six people quitting is considered “en masse”?
The best thing would be to disband them all, but tgat will never happen. So they should disperse all of the agencies to offices in each state. Then those agency staff are closer to their state counterparts and can help solve issues faster, instead of always having to kick it up to HQ in DC. Could probably speed of the review processes by several months if not years.
“they should disperse all of the agencies to offices in each state. Then those agency staff are closer to their state counterparts and can help solve issues faster, instead of always having to kick it up to HQ in DC. Could probably speed of the review processes by several months if not years.”
Remove every federal agency from DC and scatter them in rural areas around the country. We will save millions in direct labor and facility costs and countless billions in the long term as the swamp self drains and federal jobs are filled by conservative residents of flyover country.
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