After USDA announced it was moving many of its staff out of Washington, D.C. and into Indianapolis and four other regional hub locations, USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden appeared before the Senate Ag Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about USDA’s reorganization plan.
Vaden was asked why Congressional lawmakers weren’t notified ahead of time about the move.
“The employees are the ones who are most directly affected by the secretary’s decision out of common courtesy and respect they should hear that decision from the secretary first and not from a leak that originates from somewhere else
During the hearing, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who is also the Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee, referred to USDA’s reorganization plan as “half-baked”.
“Do you think that these actions are actually going to make us more competitive when it comes to ag? More competitive when we are dealing with research issues across the world? And, how will you ensure that critical research projects will not suffer?” asked Klobuchar.
“Absolutely I do, because on a government salary, government employees cannot afford to start a quality life in Washington, D.C., but they most certainly can in Indianapolis, Indiana,” responded Vaden.
During her opening statement, Klobuchar became visibly angry and pointed her frustration at Vaden while reacting to USDA’s reorganization plan—even though Vaden has only been serving as USDA Deputy Secretary for less than a month.
“I did not vote for you, Mr. Deputy Secretary, but I did think that you would go in—based on your experience—and be able to do things that would actually help rural America, and I actually took you at your word when you would pledge to work with us on things that would help. That’s not what happened here when we had ABSOLUTELY no notice of what you were going to do,” said Klobuchar.
USDA plans to take 2,600 employees out of its headquarters in our nation’s capital and move them in among the five regional hub locations—including Indianapolis. The other four hubs will be in Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Raleigh, North Carolina; and Fort Collins, Colorado.
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