Researchers to quit USDA rather than leave Washington metro area [View all]
WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration prepares to move two Agriculture Department research agencies and more than 500 jobs out of the nation’s capital region, many of the agencies’ employees appear ready to quit their jobs rather than leave their homes.
Democratic lawmakers in Virginia have attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to put the brakes on the administration’s plans in an effort to keep their constituents’ jobs nearby.
The Trump administration announced plans last month to move the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) out of Washington, D.C., to a new office in the Kansas City area. The administration, pushing a tight timeline to try to relocate both agencies by the end of September, is moving 253 of the 329 ERS positions to Kansas City. Out of NIFA’s 315 positions, 294 will relocate while 21 will stay in the Washington area, according to USDA.
Agricultural researchers and economists faced the first deadline this week to tell the agency if they would uproot their lives and move to Kansas City or leave their jobs. The majority of the workforce has not accepted the transfer to Kansas City.
Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/07/17/researchers-to-quit-usda-rather-than-leave-washington-metro-area/
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