OMAHA (DTN) -- USDA will create a new food safety hub in Iowa while also moving more of its research, economic and data-collection teams to other parts of the country as part of the department's reorganization plans.

Based on prior moves, the changes will likely lead to some more experienced staff and leadership at USDA agencies to find employment elsewhere but also create hundreds of job opportunities for younger people leaving college who want to live in the Midwest or other locations in USDA's reorganization announcements.

Among the changes announced in USDA's reorganization plans are the following:

-- Urbandale, Iowa, will become home to a National Food Safety Center as the primary headquarters for the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and its administrative, technical and support operations, with approximately 200 employees, USDA stated in a news release.

-- USDA also will reshuffle its Research, Education and Economics (REE) staff, which includes the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) by relocating more staff to Kansas City, Missouri. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) also will move staff to St. Louis, Missouri, or other NASS offices.

-- USDA also announced it will begin phasing out the Beltsville (Maryland) Agricultural Research Center (BARC) facility. Research programs at BARC will be relocated to other Agricultural Research Service (ARS) facilities around the country. USDA noted BARC has more than 400 buildings, many of which are "outdated or underutilized" or require significant maintenance.

USDA has requested more than $50 million in its fiscal-year 2027 budget for department reorganization plans, mainly to move staff out of the Washington, D.C., region. Across the department, USDA expects more than 2,000 people will be asked to relocate out of the D.C. region.

Earlier this month, USDA announced a major reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service that would relocate the agency headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah. Democrats on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee sent a letter Thursday, with 35 Democratic and independent senators signing on, raising questions about the reorganization and staffing cuts to the Forest Service.

Based on the findings of a 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, most of the moves will also likely reduce agency workforces and temporarily lead to declines in productivity. Most staff will likely not relocate but will be replaced with less experienced staff as a result, based on the GAO's findings when USDA moved ERS and NIFA staff to Missouri in 2019.

Each of these moves comes after the department saw roughly 20,000 employees leave USDA through deferred resignations or job terminations in 2025.

ECONOMIC TEAM MOVES

USDA held its annual data users meeting on Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri, highlighting the need to improve data collection and reporting processes while updating users about changes within different agencies such as new systems or procedures.

At the same time, there was no discussion at the event about the broader reorganization of the REE mission area.

USDA will follow up on its 2019 move to Kansas City by moving more ERS and NIFA positions from the Washington, D.C., area to Kansas City, saying the shift will bring research closer to stakeholders.

USDA noted in a news release, "In addition, ERS and NIFA positions that were moved to Kansas City in 2019 and have since sprawled across the country will be relocated to Kansas City, as originally intended."

"This is about execution and accountability," said Stephen Vaden, USDA's deputy secretary. "We are aligning our workforce and infrastructure with the Department's core mission, reducing unnecessary complexity, and ensuring every function is positioned to deliver results. These changes will strengthen coordination across REE agencies and improve our ability to serve farmers and ranchers efficiently and effectively."

The GAO report found that ERS lost 121 full-time staff in 2019, and NIFA lost 157 staff as part of the moves for those agency staffs to Kansas City. It took both agencies roughly two fiscal years to get their staff levels back up to what they were before the moves, the GAO found. At least some of that was driven by the pandemic, which led USDA to allow more employees to work remotely. A large percentage of ERS and NIFA employees in 2021 had less than two years of experience at the agencies.

NASS, which puts out a large volume of USDA market and statistical reports, has just over 500 employees agencywide. USDA didn't state how many would move out of the D.C. area, but stated NASS would relocate more staff to St. Louis or other offices.

"Science is most effective when it's connected to the people and places it's meant to serve," said Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics and Chief Scientist Scott Hutchins. "This effort strengthens our ability to deliver actionable research, trusted data, and innovative solutions by aligning our teams more closely with agricultural producers across the country. It ensures our work remains relevant, responsive, and grounded in the needs of American farmers."

FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE MOVES

Urbandale, Iowa, will become the FSIS primary headquarters under the National Food Safety Center. Creating such a center, "marks a significant shift in the agency's operational footprint, placing key functions closer to the agricultural and food production systems that FSIS regulates and supports," USDA stated.

FSIS will also create a science center in Athens, Georgia, tied to its existing Eastern Field Services Laboratory at that facility. FSIS also will create an office in Fort Collins, Colorado, that will work on international issues.

"This is about building a stronger, more resilient food safety system for the country. By establishing a National Food Safety Center in Iowa and expanding our scientific capabilities, USDA is ensuring that the Food Safety and Inspection Service is positioned where it can best support American agriculture and protect public health," said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

The FSIS reorganization will relocate about two-thirds of FSIS staff who now work in the National Capital Region, while about 100 staff positions will remain in the Washington, D.C., area. USDA noted the reorganization of food-inspection offices will not affect more than 85% of FSIS staff that work to inspect more than 6,800 food processing facilities nationally.

BUDGET TRIMS

Tied to this, the House Appropriations Committee released its budget offering for USDA on Thursday that includes a 1.4% budget cut but still offers more funding than the Trump administration proposed for FY 2027. The bill would cut $675 million from USDA's budget overall.

The details released by the committee do not specifically mention funds for reorganization or any increase in the borrowing authority for the Commodity Credit Corp., a request championed by Rollins.

The budget details released by the committee note that it reduces salaries and expenses to account for staffing reductions at USDA along with "shrinking grant programs that housed canceled grants."

Other budget details included the following:

-- $1.1 billion for Farm Service Agency, a $19 million cut.

-- $1.226 billion for FSIS, a $10.8 million increase.

-- $800 million for Natural Resources Conservation Service, a $50 million cut.

-- $1.158 billion for Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, maintaining last year's budget.

-- $1.642 billion for NIFA, a $34.3 million cut

The budget also zeros out funding for the USDA climate hubs.

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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