Seems Like a Good Idea - Department of Agriculture Moving Closer to Agriculture

Decentralizing the federal government had been a talking point in conservative circles for some time. Now it looks like this is getting underway.

On Friday, the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced something that Washington is actually doing something that makes sense - sending the Department of Agriculture out to places where, you know, agriculture happens. It's an idea that's long overdue.

.@SecRollins on moving USDA staff out of DC to be closer to farmers: "This is literally what @POTUS has tasked his Cabinet to do — to deconstruct the Administrative State... This is aligned with our Founding Fathers' vision... where the government should be closer to the people." pic.twitter.com/9NmCJmkoSW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 25, 2025

Secretary Rollins said:

From the beginning, he (President Trump) talked about draining the swamp, and I know you, Bill, remember this very well. For those of us out in America at the time, we didn't all know what he really meant. Now, here we are, fast forward 10 years later, and this is literally what he has tasked his cabinet to do: To deconstruct the administrative state in Washington, DC. This is aligned with our Founding Fathers' vision, of over 250 years ago, where the government should be closer to the people. But under Republicans and Democrats, all these years, the coalescing of power in Washington, DC, has just gone on and on and on, but no more.
So yesterday, USDA announced we're going to be moving most of our headquarters staff out into the country, in the five cities, the five states that you mentioned, taking our, getting closer to our constituents, the farmers, the ranchers, the producers, the firefighters, USDA has the largest firefighting contingency in America. We fight the wildfires out across the west of our country. Our food stamp program, all of the above, ensuring that we're moving out closer to the people of America. And this is what the Founding Fathers envisioned. It will be cheaper, it will be more efficient, and we'll be able to do better.

Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO), who hails from a state with a huge agricultural sector, was quick to weigh in:

It’s long past time we reconnect USDA’s decision makers with the farmers and ranchers they serve. Kansas City, which sits in the heartland of America and already houses key USDA offices, is a great place for this relocation. https://t.co/RCa53ggxD8
— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) July 25, 2025

What are the advantages of this move? There are several.

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First: Moving the Department of Agriculture out into the heartland, where agriculture actually takes place, makes a great deal of sense. Very few food crops are grown in the District, after all, and we might suspect that few people with knowledge and experience in growing such crops would be interested in a full-time career job in that city. This places a built-in limit on the value that the Department of Agriculture can provide.

Second: This is the first step in what should be a much larger move. Decentralizing the federal government not only moves the various aspects of that government closer to the people, but it also could serve a national security concern, of not making it so easy for a potential enemy to destroy the entire federal government in one go.

Breaking up the Department of Agriculture, moving it out into the agricultural areas, is an idea whose time has come. Many long-time Washington bureaucrats may not want to make the move; fine. USDA will do fine without them, and in the heartland, they can find new employees who are actually familiar with agriculture.

It's a good start.

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