USDA Announces Reorganization Plan to Slash Washington Staff by Over 50 Percent

Thousands of jobs will move to five regional hubs as part of a broader federal downsizing push.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins testifies before the House Agriculture Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 11, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Trump administration has announced a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will cut its Washington-area workforce by more than half and shift thousands of positions to regional hubs, part of President Donald Trump’s broader push to shrink the federal government and move agencies closer to the communities they serve.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the reorganization plan in a July 24 memo, which lays out plans to cut the department’s D.C.-area staff from about 4,600 to fewer than 2,000 employees.

“American agriculture feeds, clothes, and fuels this nation and the world, and it is long past time the Department better serve the great and patriotic farmers, ranchers, and producers we are mandated to support,” Rollins said in a statement. “President Trump was elected to make real change in Washington, and we are doing just that by moving our key services outside the beltway and into great American cities across the country.”

The move will consolidate headquarters operations, vacate multiple federal buildings in the capital, and relocate much of the agency’s work to five hub cities: Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

The reorganization plan rests on four “pillars,” according to the USDA: reducing the workforce so it’s better aligned with available funding and policy priorities, relocating resources closer to farmers and ranchers, eliminating management layers and bureaucracy, and consolidating redundant support functions.

Much of the workforce reduction will come through voluntary retirements and the Deferred Retirement Program, which offers incentives for employees to resign at a future date. USDA said 15,364 workers have opted into that program so far. Targeted layoffs may follow if voluntary measures fall short.

“We will do right by the great American people who we serve and with respect to the thousands of hardworking USDA employees who so nobly serve their country,” Rollins said of the process.

USDA’s workforce expanded by 8 percent over the past four years, with salaries rising 14.5 percent. Agency officials said the growth brought no measurable increase in services for farmers and ranchers. They said the department’s Washington-area presence is redundant and costly, burdened by overspending and years of deferred maintenance.

“President Trump has made it clear government needs to be scrutinized, and after this thorough review of USDA, the results show a bloated, expensive, and unsustainable organization,” agency officials said in a statement.

The announcement follows a July 8 Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for the Trump administration to proceed with mass federal workforce reductions and agency restructurings.

The high court lifted a lower court order that had blocked layoffs tied to Trump’s workforce optimization push and recommendations made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Substantial staffing cuts have taken place at a number of federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Under the USDA’s reorganization plan, the department will vacate major properties, including the South Building, Braddock Place, and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, all of which face significant deferred maintenance costs. The South Building alone has a $1.3 billion backlog and is less than one-third occupied. Other facilities will be retained, but their use and functions will be reviewed.

Rollins said in her memo that all critical functions will continue uninterrupted, including food safety inspections, wildfire response, and other public safety roles. She previously exempted 52 job classifications tied to national security and public safety from a federal hiring freeze, and while those employees will keep their jobs, they may also be relocated.