New Mexico’s United States senators this week joined 22 other Democrats in seeking more information from the federal Agriculture Department on how a recently announced “restructuring” will impact the department’s research and innovation mission.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins in late April said the department would be relocating some positions and otherwise refocusing the department’s Research, Education and Economics mission area, which is dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge related to agriculture, according to the department.
Rollins’ statement stressed that the changes were not a “reduction in force” that would result in mass layoffs, but instead aimed to reduce complexity and bring scientists closer to the communities they’re serving. That will mean the decommissioning of the Maryland-based Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and “relocating research programs to facilities across the country better aligned with regional agricultural needs,” according to the USDA.
U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, both New Mexico Democrats, said they are concerned Rollins is actually reducing the USDA’s research capacity. They and other Democratic senators sent her a letter Thursday that noted previous staff relocations by federal agencies resulted in mass resignations from employees unable to quickly uproot and move cross country.
“This effort will erode the capacity of USDA’s research agencies and threaten their ability to deliver innovation and timely economic data for farmers, ranchers and rural communities,” the letter reads.
The letter asks Rollins to provide detailed descriptions of how the USDA intends to minimize disruptions to farmers, ranchers and researchers, including how they plan to address existing collective bargaining agreements with public sector labor unions.
“Proactive and ongoing engagement with these employees will be necessary to prevent major disruptions to research, data collection, and education,” the senators write.
In addition to the USDA’s research shakeup, the USDA is also relocating the United States Forest Service’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. Environmentalist groups have raised similar concerns about staff reductions that result from that move.
