Economic Research Service

The Agriculture Department said short-term contractors, employees on detail from other agencies and reemployed annuitants are all part of its strategy to fill workforce gaps at the two research bureaus impacted by the USDA relocation.

In today’s Federal Newscast, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) says the USDA relocation is delaying implementation of the Farm Bill.

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton are trying to block the Bureau of Land Management relocation with new legislation. They have introduced a bill that would require the BLM headquarters to remain in the national capital region.

Faced with widening workforce gaps, the Agriculture Department is asking some of the employees impacted by the USDA relocation to Kansas City to continue working longer in Washington, D.C. until a later date.

Shouldn’t the feds responsible for programs impacting crops, cattle and minerals be closer to the taxpayers who produce, manage and depend on them?

The two bureaus impacted by the Agriculture Department’s upcoming relocation to Kansas City are asking retirees to consider returning to their former agencies as part-time reemployed annuitants of the Economic Research Service or the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

In today’s Federal Newscast, news that the USDA will not be paying as much to employees who chose not to move to Kansas City next month has sparked Congressional outrage.

Eligible employees at the Agriculture Department who plan to leave the agency rather than relocate to Kansas City by the end of the fiscal year will receive buyouts worth $10,000, rather than the maximum incentive payment of $25,000.

Would you move your family from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to those of Kansas City to take a lower-wage job — as in $5,000 to $15,000 per annum lower?

Though the agreement doesn’t make any guarantees, the deal the Agriculture Department and the American Federation of Government Employees reached late last week gives employees impacted by the Kansas City relocation a path to request more time to make the move and other flexibilities.