USDA Staff Moves
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden argued recently for closing USDA buildings and moving staff out of the nation’s capital region.
Vaden told senators Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins is planning to move just 2.5% of USDA’s staff or 26-hundred people to five hubs outside the DC area, where 90% already work …
VADEN … “USDA has a total of 4,754 facilities at which its employees report to work every day. The secretary’s proposal calls for closing exactly four of those 4,754 places of employment.”
Vaden argued none of USDA’s owned or leased buildings in DC meet the 60% occupancy rate Congress requires …
VADEN … “What does the Use It Act say if you fail to meet it? The agency should choose to consolidate and vacate to get into a footprint that does meet the 60-percent threshold. That is exactly what USDA is choosing to do.”
Vaden rejected complaints there’ll be few staffers in USDA’s DC buildings, when most were teleworking anyway …
VADEN … “That was USDA for the last four years. Drive by the Whitten Building, drive by the South Building, the parking lots were empty.”
Even with the “return to the office” policy, Vaden says USDA buildings here aren’t even 40% occupied.
