The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a phased plan to vacate much of its office space in the National Capital Region (NCR) and relocate most of its staff to five hub locations across the country.
The USDA currently has approximately 4,600 employees within the NCR. In a press statement, the department said the relocation is being enacted because the region “has one of the highest costs of living in the country, with a federal salary locality rate of 33.94%.” The USDA plans to keep a maximum of 2,000 employees in the NCR while moving employees to Raleigh, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City and Fort Collins, Colorado.
“USDA will vacate and return to the General Services Administration the South Building, Braddock Place, and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, and revisit utilization and functions in the USDA Whitten Building, Yates Building, and the National Agricultural Library,” said the department. “The George Washington Carver Center will also be utilized until space optimization activities are completed. These buildings have a backlog of costly deferred maintenance and currently are occupied below the minimum set by law. For example, the South Building has approximately $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance and has an average daily occupancy of less than 1,900 individuals for a building that can house over 6,000 employees.”
The department added additional phases of employee relocation will be announced over the next month.
Another federal agency that can be eliminated!!