USDA picks Kansas City for agencies' relocations

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: St. Joseph, MO, News Press

USDA picks Kansas City for agencies' relocations
By Ken Newton News-Press NOW 56 min ago

Lobbying by Missouri lawmakers, including Congressman Sam Graves, may have been instrumental in the U.S. Agriculture Department's decision to relocate two agencies to Kansas City.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue made the announcement Thursday morning that the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Economic Research Service would move from the nation's capital to western Missouri. ... Graves said Thursday that the relocation will bring 500 jobs to the region.
....

In a letter to the "USDA Family" and signed by "Secretary Sonny," Perdue said the move of the two agencies will generate $300 million in savings over a 15-year period, allowing for more direct funding for department programs.
....

Perdue said last year that the agencies would be moving out of Washington, citing costs and workforce considerations as reasons. Graves joined fellow Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Emanuel Cleaver in advocating for a Kansas City relocation.
....

As its mission, the Economic Research Service crunches numbers to spot trends in agriculture, food and rural life. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture looks into initiatives that ensure the long-term viability of farming and food production.

Read more: http://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/usda-picks-kansas-city-for-agencies-relocations/article_af5d337a-8dd6-11e9-be41-83292dfe47c1.html

---

The Economic Research Service reports on employment in agriculture. The monthly employment reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics cover only non-agricultural employment.

From three weeks ago. Hat tip, Eugene:

USDA researchers quit in droves as Trump administration plans relocation

https://www.democraticunderground.com/122863993

Source: Washington Post

USDA researchers quit in droves as Trump administration plans relocation

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/05/22/usda-researchers-quit-droves-trump-administration-plans-relocation/

By Ben Guarino May 22 at 2:32 PM

A plan to move Agriculture Department researchers out of Washington, D.C., has thrown two small but influential science agencies into upheaval. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) have quit in unusually large numbers since August, when Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced he would relocate the offices.

ERS leadership has been conducting final site visits this week of candidate locations, and an "announcement Friday is very likely," said Peter Winch, an organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that currently represents ERS workers.

Perdue presented his idea as a money-saving plan that will move scientists closer to "stakeholders" and "customers" such as farmers. ERS is a statistical agency that provides research for lawmakers; NIFA funds hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural research each year. Each office employs between 200 and 250 people, based on employee estimates. During the Obama administration, NIFA had about 400 workers and ERS had 300.

Former Agriculture Department officials, members of Congress and leaders in the agricultural community have warned that the relocation will weaken the offices and their scientific integrity.

The plan faces several obstacles. The USDA's inspector general is investigating whether Perdue has the legal authority to relocate the agencies. The House Appropriations Committee's draft bill of agricultural appropriations for fiscal year 2020, released Wednesday, prohibits the department from using funds for relocations outside the capital area.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/05/22/usda-researchers-quit-droves-trump-administration-plans-relocation/
9

-- -- -- --

Also from three weeks ago. Hat tip, Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin:

USDA relocates economists whose work challenges Trump policies

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212121478

links to https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/22/usda-agriculture-economists-trump-policies-1340168

-- -- -- --

From May. Hat tip, riversedge:

Economists flee Agriculture Dept. after feeling punished under Trump

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142312874

[klook]

1. Why not just move all Federal agencies to Kansas?

That way they can be more easily supervised by Koch Industries, headquartered in Wichita.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. "weaken the offices and their scientific integrity". That's not side effect, that's the plan. . . nt

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

7. Eggzactly...

... misspelled on purpose, to match the location/policy shift(s).

PS: My kid brother is a USDA inspector in charge; my dad is a retired inspector in charge of 30+ years.

[Submariner]

3. I hope Biden and the others are making a checklist of all the Trump screw ups

that need to be reversed soon as they get in office. I would spend the first week reversing EVERY executive order he signs in his 4 years of holding the country hostage.

[jmowreader]

4. In theory this makes sense

The agencies monitor conditions in farm country, so it makes sense for them to be in farm country.

However, they should have been there from the beginning. Right now all the workers and their hard-earned knowledge have deep ties to DC. Kansas City has its charms (like excellent barbecue) but the workers’ friends and their kids’ friends are in DC. These folks can get other jobs.

So we can only surmise this is just an attempt to destroy the government.

[cstanleytech]

8. Except there are farms all over the country as well.

Mind you I'm not saying that moving it there is a bad idea but I do think more time should have been given to the employees to make arrangements for such a change.

[CreekDog]

16. It makes sense if one didn't bother to read anything about the actual jobs

And the actual professions required to do those jobs.

As well as who they provide their research to.

But aside from that SPOT ON POST. It's all wrong but hey, you figured they are jobs about "farms" so you've read enough, it belongs in Missouri or some farmy place.

I don't know anything from economists and scientists, it's FARMY DAMMIT, PUT IT IN MISSOURI OR IOWA OR KANSAS or whatever.

[matt819]

5. Stench of corruption

The USDA annual budget is $151 billion (https://www.google.com/search?q=usda+annual+budget&oq=usda+annual+budget&aqs=chrome..69i57.2800j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

$300 million savings over 15 years amounts to $20 million savings annually.

Based on the current annual budget of $151 billion, the $20 million savings amounts to this: 00013245033.

So, let's just say that your annual household budget is $30,000. The comparable savings would be $3.97. You can't even buy an ice cream sundae or a Starbucks fancy latte for $3.97.

Of course, this "savings" doesn't account for capital costs to build the facilities in Kansas and to relocate the employees who remain.

They also don't take into account the impact on these agencies of the hundreds of employees, maybe more, who choose to leave their jobs rather than move from the center of government to the center of . . . nothing.

Repeat after me: Stench of corruption.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Note that the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures only "nonfarm payroll employment."

Note that the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures only "nonfarm payroll employment."

Payroll employment increases by 263,000 in April; unemployment rate declines to 3.6%

Economic News Release USDL-19-0731

Employment Situation Summary
Transmission of material in this news release is embargoed until 8:30 a.m. (EDT) Friday, May 3, 2019

Technical information:
Household data: [phone] * [e-mail] * www.bls.gov/cps
Establishment data: [phone] * [e-mail] * www.bls.gov/ces

Media contact: [phone] * [e-mail]


THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- APRIL 2019


Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000 in April, and the unemployment rate declined to 3.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, construction, health care, and social assistance.
....

From The mind-numbing rant, based on a version posted on the first Friday in September 2016:

or

It shows up every month here at DU, on (usually) the first Friday of the month.

[center]What About Employment on Farms?[/center]

[font color="red"]New material, added May 4, 2018:[/font]

Note that the BLS measures only "nonfarm payroll employment."

Nonfarm payrolls

I'm hoping the following link goes to an impartial site:

What is 'Nonfarm Payroll'

So who measures employment on farms? Hmmmmmm....

United States Department of Agriculture
Economic Research Service

Farm Labor

ERS provides information on a range of farm labor issues, including:

• Size and composition of the U.S. agricultural workforce (self-employed versus hired)

• Recent trends in the employment of hired farmworkers

• Demographic characteristics of hired farmworkers, including age, sex, and nativity

• Geographic distribution of hired farmworkers (all occupations)

• Wages of hired farmworkers

• Labor cost share of total gross revenues

• H-2A temporary agricultural visa program

• Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR)

• Legal status and migration practices of hired crop farmworkers

Finally, we provide links to key data sources with summaries.

[ancianita]

19. +1000 for awesomeness

[mac56]

9. Everything's up to date there.

[VarryOn]

20. Subtle and funny! One of my fav songs! nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. I knew it had to be from some song. I didn't know which one.

I had to look it up.

I'm not sure if the video was taken from the Todd-AO version or the CinemaScope version. I'd love to see the Todd-AO original. I doubt that anyone has been able to show that in decades.

Oklahoma! (1955 film)

Oklahoma! is a 1955 American musical film based on the 1943 musical of the same name by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, starring Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones (in her film debut), Rod Steiger, Charlotte Greenwood, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, James Whitmore, and Eddie Albert. The production was the only musical directed by Fred Zinnemann. Oklahoma! was the first feature film photographed in the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process (and was simultaneously filmed in CinemaScope 35mm).

[machoneman]

10. Only goal: eliminate any professional staff and get hayseeds to give Trump his version of the facts.

I swear they will stop at nothing. Our hope is the IG will delay this long enough to prevent the move and further destroy the integrity of the department.

[not fooled]

11. Yep

plus as another poster mentioned recently, enable red don to exercise political patronage in awarding at least the higher-up jobs (I remain convinced at some point--especially if rd gets another term--they will screen applicants for Federal employment and anyone who's registered Dem or votes Dem will be discriminated against)

Plus--it's much harder to interact with Congressional staffers or other avenues of power if not in DC, so further marginalizes these parts of USDA.

[ArizonaLib]

12. "Federal Jobs to the region"??????

That's what military bases are already used for. Not only that - but if that is a benefit republicans can agree to, then bring back CCC camps and the work programs FDR used in the 1930's to build the modern economy. What about those 25 Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers they are closing all over the country?

If anyone missed it -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-to-pull-out-of-rural-job-corps-program-laying-off-1100-federal-workers/2019/05/24/b93c5af4-7e5b-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html?noredirect=on

[ancianita]

13. Just up the road from the Kochs. This should be taken to court. No federal cabinet should be moved

anywhere the corporate campus owners want.

Make this democratic electorate eat this corporate government elephant one bite at a time? Hell, no.

[Hangingon]

17. Kansas City is a Federal regional city

USDA has several offices here as do other Federal agencies. It appears many people posting here don’t know much about the Federal government.

[ancianita]

18. Many, including me, do know how massive the USDA is. But if you say it's all innocent, then it's

not even news, is it.

One thing we do know about THIS government, is when Sonny Perdue says he's saving tax money AND increasing jobs in that region.... it's not purely business; it's not "just" so that our government can do its job better. Sure.

Have you read about the opposition within the USDA over this?

[Rebl2]

14. Live in

Kansas City area and don’t think they should move here. I predict many will quit before they would move here. The city is great in regards to shopping, great restaurants, but they will want to live in suburbs or Johnson County Kansas for good schools. I am sorry to say the K.C. school district is not the best.
.

[Igel]

15. I could swear I've read something like this someplace.

Oh. Perhaps it this. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/oct/02/theres-no-other-option-the-radical-plan-to-move-mexicos-government