As part of the Trump Administration’s initiative to eliminate federal government waste and reduce spending, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is moving offices and employees out of the National Capital Region, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Thursday.
“USDA’s footprint in the National Capital Region (NCR) is underutilized and redundant, plagued by rampant overspending and decades of mismanagement and costly deferred maintenance,” Sec. Rollins reported in a press release explaining the reasons for the move:
“For example, the [D.C.] 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.”
The exit from the D.C. area is also being driven by the extremely high cost of living in the area, which requires the USDA to pay employees there roughly 34% more than their base salary, Rollins notes:
“This Region has one of the highest costs of living in the country, with a federal salary locality rate of 33.94%.”
To reduce the taxpayer cost and locate the USDA “closer to the people it serves,” much of the Agency’s headquarters and employees will be relocated from the D.C. area to one of five hubs with lower living cost pay adjustments:
- Raleigh, North Carolina (22.24%)
- Kansas City, Missouri (18.97%)
- Indianapolis, Indiana (18.15%)
- Fort Collins, Colorado (30.52%)
- Salt Lake City, Utah (17.06%)
Ultimately, the USDA plans to reduce its employee count by more than half, from 4,600 currently to less than 2,000.
Four offices in the National Capital Region will be either vacated, sold or transferred, while three will be retained and employees will be transferred there to reduce their unacceptably low occupancy rates.
Similar efforts to reduce waste and improve efficiency are being made throughout the rest of the USDA, in compliance with the Trump Administration’s federal government-wide effort, in response to past and current overspending and excessive hiring.
In the past four years, during the Biden Administration, USDA increased its workforce 8% and boosted employee salaries by 14.5%. Now, the USDA is utilizing voluntary employee resignation incentive programs to reduce its staff to a more practical level.
Additionally, the USDA plans to consolidate support functions into overarching offices and reduce or eliminate “bureaucratic management layers,” such as stand-alone regional offices.
All critical functions will continue uninterrupted and all public safety and national security positions are exempt from reductions in staff, Sec. Rollins ensures in his press statement.
Read the “Department of Agriculture Reorganization Plan” issued by Sec. Rollins on July 24, 2025 on the USDA website.