The curious politics of the proposed USDA relocation

USDA inserted a somewhat unusual notice in the Federal Register. This USDA notice was just three pages long and it was written in everyday English. Although it was proposing to take a radical step -- moving the Economic Research Service and the National Institute on Food and Agriculture out of Washington, D.C. -- it made scant effort to justify the move. The closest it came to stating a reason was a short phrase in a single sentence citing the opportunity to move the agencies "closer to its customers and facilitate economic development in Rural America." You'd think that before relocating two important agencies with more than 600 highly trained employees the government would have done some serious analysis, carefully weighing the pros and cons. There's no evidence the Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and his team did that. Instead, the notice leapt immediately into soliciting expressions of interest to house the two agencies. It spelled out what USDA is looking for in the way of new sites. If the aim is to get government closer to its customers, ERS is already as close as it can get. The customers for its analyses of food and agricultural issues are Congressional and executive branch decision makers. NIFA awards research grants, which is a good reason it should not be located on a university campus, where its proximity to one group of grant applicants would raise concerns about favoritism. NIFA needs a neutral home with close links to other parts of USDA. If USDA wants to move agencies closer to farmers, it has any number whose customers really are farmers. Memo to Secretary Perdue: Move one of those, not ERS and NIFA.