Deputy Secretary for US Agriculture Stephen Alexander Vaden testifies before the US Senate Agriculture Committee on July 30, 2025.
Members of both sides in the Senate of the Senate of the US Agriculture committed on Wednesday an official of the US Department of Agriculture for them for consultation with Congress before they proposed to transfer thousands of jobs from Washington.
Deputy Secretary of USDA Stephen Alexander Vaden defended a wide proposal, which secretary Brooke Rollins announced With Five -page note Last week, saying, this will support you bring the department closer to people who supervise and reduce the costs of maintenance for federal employees, while promising cooperation with the committee members in the following month of planning.
“The secretary’s memorandum was the first step, not the last step,” said Vaden Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, the highest democratic in the panel, which criticized several aspects of the plan.
The proposal requires a limitation of 2600 out of 4600 USDA in the district of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, as well as the extension of the trace of the department in five regional hubs: Raleigh, North Karolina; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Fort Collins, Colorado; And Salt Lake City.
Klobuchar said that the transfer of employees from the capital region hurts the constituencies that are used by USDA. She said that agency officials should be nearby to meet with congress members, other executive branches and trade groups based on the capital of the country.
“Whitting durping USDA resources, to do this key work, puts rural America in an adverse situation when they do not have people in the room in which it is happening,” said Klobuchar.
“We have differences in the transition,” she continued. “But I think that each of my colleagues understand that you need people who can meet you, you need people who can go to the White House so that you don’t have people who have no interest in rural America in making all decisions.”
Vaden said that USDA would keep employees in all areas of the department’s mission in the Washington region.
No prior notification
Even the Republicans who said that they had generally agreed with the purpose of the proposal, indicated that they underestimated the lack of notification before the announcement.
“I support finding cost savings where you can, I support the idea of leading people from the DC area and to the field and closer to the farmer,” said Republican Republican John Hoeven. “We support goals, but we want it to be a process in which you work with Congress, along with the Senate, both the authorizing committee and the Committee for Men, and we achieve these results together. And I think that it will help to get much greater support for this effort.”
In the opening statement, the chairman John Boozman, a Republican Arkansas, thanked Vaden for his availability at the hearing on “very, very short notification”
Klobuchar questioned this description.
“The reason for this is that the administration issued a half-baked plan without notification and without consulting with agricultural leaders,” she said.
Interesting groups were not said before the announcement, Vaden told Klobuchar, although the White House Management and Budget Office received a notification.
In response to complaints about the lack of commitment to Congress, Vaden said that the legislators were notified at the same time as USDA employees, shortly before the public announcement, and emphasized that the advertisement was started by a 30-day period of commitment that would include Congress.
He also compared the reorganization plan for remote work, which the workforce of the Faculty used at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“From January 2021 to January 2025, Biden administration, 2,200 employees left Washington,” he said. “There was no congress notification, there was no indignation, there was no committee dissertation. For over 1700 days, going far beyond any fair definition of Covid pandemic, USDA was on the maximum basis of teleworking.”
Republicans in the middle west Miffed
Some Republicans from the panel offered cordial support, including Jim Justice from West Virginia, who used his time to promote the plan instead of listening to Vader.
“I have no questions,” said Justice. “I’m just telling you that we absolutely have to move and do everything in our power for these wonderful people.”
But the problem crossed the party lines in several cases. Some Republicans, whose states were given when choosing the proposed centers, had keen questions for Vaden, while some democrats who would gain a federal presence based on proposals were less critical.
Hoeven questioned the proposed location selections, noticing Fargo in northern Dakota, he had no hub at a distance of 600 miles. Fargo is “in the heart of the AG country,” said Hoeven.
“What is magic with five centers?” He asked. “How much agriculture is in the state of Utah? We can go through all these things and is it actually easier or better for our farmers and our ranch in northern Dakota, taking into account the five centers you have chosen.”
Utah took the 37th place in total agricultural income, in accordance with Statistics 2023 USDA.
No NebraSki hub
Republican Republican Deb Fischer said that she talked to Vaden, before interrogating confirmation this year, the possibility of transferring some of the USDA working force outside the beltway and was in favor of Nebrask as a suitable place.
For this reason, she was disappointed with the proposal and its introduction.
“I would like to see a process that allowed Nebrask to demonstrate her strong proposal of values,” she said. “So, although I agree here with an excessive goal, I have to express disappointment with how it was introduced and lack of commitment to the congress before announcement.”
Meanwhile, Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, whose state would see the regional center It would also have a consolidated American Forest Service Office, said he agreed with the goals of the plan.
“I have long called for the idea of moving people from Washington to a part of the country to partially get out of the isolation of this place, simply closer, in this case producers, but others,” said Bennet. “So philosophically, I was there.”
