USDA relocation

In today’s Federal Newscast, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro lays out a litany of changes lawmakers should consider as they update the 1990 CFO Act.

The Agriculture Department finalized a new lease for permanent office space in Missouri, which will house employees at the Economic Research Bureau and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Moving people out of D.C. has been proposed before, but commentator and former Homeland Security CHCO Jeff Neal says the HIRE Act’s reasoning is flawed.

In today’s Federal Newscast, the Air Force is rolling out a new criminal justice IT system. It comes two years after the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas highlighted flaws in the current system.

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.

A quiet update for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation shows how reorgs can work without flamethrowing.

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.

Former DHS chief human capital officer Jeff Neal says he didn’t used to, but that the recent USDA situation makes him think the civil service might in fact be broken.