Overview
- USDA said Thursday it will move about 2,600 Washington-area employees into five hubs in Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Raleigh, Fort Collins and Indianapolis to place staff closer to producers.
- The department will begin decommissioning the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland and will reassign Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture staff to Kansas City, echoing a 2019 move that triggered steep staff losses.
- Food Safety and Inspection Service will create a National Food Safety Center in Urbandale, Iowa, with about 200 headquarters staff, and frontline inspectors who work in plants will not be moved.
- Employees who decline directed reassignments risk losing their jobs, and USDA says it will offer relocation assistance while keeping roughly 100 FSIS headquarters roles in the capital region.
- Maryland lawmakers say the plan violates a fiscal 2026 rider that requires committee approval for closures and signaled they may sue, even as ARS shifts projects from Beltsville and adds 45 positions and 10 projects in North Dakota.