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USDA details reorganization progress as legal challenge continues

USDA’s Deputy Secretary says the agency has made significant progress implementing its department-wide reorganization since the plan was announced this summer.

“We have hiring actions going on across this country as we are hiring new employees in our hubs to better serve the American farmer,” says Stephen Vaden.

He says Food and Nutrition Administration employees are out of their former headquarters in Alexandria, Virigina and moved into the Yates Building in Washington D.C. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is standing up its new food safety labs in Iowa and Georgia.

Federal employee unions are challenging USDA’s reorganization in federal court in California, and a judge has temporarily paused some employee relocations while considering a request for a preliminary injunction. USDA’s reorganization efforts are on hold through the end of this week.

Vaden tells Brownfield if the judge moves forward with an injunction, the USDA could take this to an appellate court.

“If we need to use them, we will. And I’m fully confident we’ll win in any final legal action, because we’ve got a lot of support among the farmers of this country and among their elected representatives in the halls of Congress, who are very much anxious for us to build that new lab in Ames, Iowa.”

Vaden, who has been overseeing the reorganization, says decisions about the department’s management ultimately rest with the agriculture secretary and the president.