Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will be fully moved out of the nation’s capital by 2020, according to the USDA. A location hasn’t been picked yet.
"It’s been our goal to make USDA the most effective, efficient, and customer-focused department in the entire federal government," Perdue said in a statement. "In our Administration, we have looked critically at the way we do business, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the best service possible for our customers, and for the taxpayers of the United States.""In some cases, this has meant realigning some of our offices and functions, or even relocating them, in order to make more logical sense or provide more streamlined and efficient services," Perdue said.
As part of the reorganization, Perdue is also moving the Economic Research Service (ERS) out from under the USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics branch. The ERS will be placed back in the Office of the Chief Economist under the authority of the Office of the Secretary.
Roughly 700 USDA employees could be moved, E&E News reports.
| Yes, but to where? We can’t enjoy proper schadenfreude unless we know whether it’s to be Bismark, North Dakota, somewhere deep in Oklahoma, or a small farm community even less appealing to the DC crowd. |