USDA
To bring USDA closer to the people it serves while also providing a more affordable cost of living for USDA employees, USDA has developed a phased plan to relocate much of its Agency headquarters and NCR staff out of the Washington, D.C. area to five hub locations. The Department currently has approximately 4,600 employees within the National Capital Region (NCR). This Region has one of the highest costs of living in the country, with a federal salary locality rate of 33.94%. In selecting its hub locations, USDA considered where existing concentrations of USDA employees are located and factored in the cost of living. Washington, D.C. will still hold functions for every mission area of USDA at the conclusion of this reorganization, but USDA expects no more than 2,000 employees will remain in the NCR.
USDA will vacate and return to the General Services Administration the South Building, Braddock Place, and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, and revisit utilization and functions in the USDA Whitten Building, Yates Building, and the National Agricultural Library. The George Washington Carver Center will also be utilized until space optimization activities are completed. These buildings have a backlog of costly deferred maintenance and currently are occupied below the minimum set by law. For example, the South Building has approximately $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance and has an average daily occupancy of less than 1,900 individuals for a building that can house over 6,000 employees. More
“For example, the South Building has approximately $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance …”
And that’s bureaucratese for what, exactly? USDA is “maintained” by GSA (or they were when I was still in gov’t) who are, arguably, lazier than Teamsters or UAW. They left toilets stopped up with shit and stinking for 2-3 weeks with “Out of Order” signs on the stalls (they could have carried a plunger instead of “Out of Order” signs but it never occurred to them).
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
Good step forward except the five hubs part needs to be more finely graduated, although that does risk more bureaucracy as work sites tend to mean directors and other nonmission personnel.
1.3 billion divided by 1900 is $684000 per person per year
Naturally, the cost of living in regional accommodations will be more economical, USDA salaries should be reduced to reflect the lower cost of living. (SAYS NO ONE)
the cows will not like their company
And maybe –just maybe– when these workers are relocated to the rural areas they are supposed to serve, they will appreciate the beauty, the pace, and the cost of living in flyover country and begin to look out for the interests of their new neighbors.
I am a proud NIMBY, fiercely opposed to covering rural acreage with utility scale solar “farms” to feed the insatiable energy demands of suburban data centers. Maybe if it’s their backyard, the USDA employees will support the preservation of agricultural land too. And maybe the USDA will even be able to hire from local farming families, bringing a realistic perspective to the agency and some government salaries to the farms. What a concept…