2026-08-14T10:00:31.220Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/14/politics/usda-staffers-federal-workforce-vis
当劳拉·多森在6月底收到通知，得知她作为农业经济学家的工作将被迁至密苏里州堪萨斯城时，她清楚这将对自己和数十名处境相同的同事，以及他们为农民、研究人员和公众提供的服务带来何种影响。
在特朗普首届政府任期内的2019年，美国农业部将其下属经济研究服务局（ERS）和另一个小型研究所的多名员工重新调配至堪萨斯城，称此举将为纳税人节省资金，并让员工更贴近“利益相关方”。
然而，根据联邦监督机构的一份报告，许多人拒绝搬迁，导致这两个机构的员工流失超过一半，随后几年里报告和期刊文章的产出减少，拨款审批流程也变得更为缓慢。
美国联邦政府雇员联合会3403地方分会副主席多森表示，留下来的员工士气低落，不得不应对混乱的工作环境。
如今，多森担心收到搬迁通知的ERS同事中多达80%会选择离职。3403地方分会的调查显示，仅有6%的受访者表示愿意搬迁，另有25%的人表示尚未确定。
“农业部知道当时发生了什么，也清楚结果，”多森说，她获得了工作相关的豁免，可以推迟至明年1月再搬迁数百英里，但她也在积极寻找其他工作，包括私营部门的职位。“他们在2019年做过这个实验。”
多森和CNN采访的多名其他工会成员表示，推动员工离职正是农业部此次重组的主要目标。许多人称这是伪装成搬迁的裁员（RIF，即人员缩减）——上个月，法律倡导组织“民主向前”代表工会、市政当局和非营利组织联盟提起诉讼，要求叫停此次行动，也印证了这一观点。
农业部2025年7月宣布将重组其 workforce 时称，此举是为了“重新聚焦核心业务，更好地契合其支持美国农业、牧场和林业的创始使命”。但该部门同时表示，此次行动是进一步缩减 workforce 的一步，以“确保农业部能够负担得起”，并指出近年来其员工人数有所增长。
在给CNN的一份声明中，该部门重申，重组“旨在协调人员、服务交付和财政资源”。
“所有现任员工只要愿意，都可以在农业部继续发展，”农业部发言人在声明中表示，并指出农业部已表示将为被要求搬迁的员工报销搬迁费用。
此次重组正值特朗普2025年1月就职以来农业部大幅裁员之际，数万名员工辞职、退休或通过激励计划离职。
该联盟在诉讼中辩称，农业部无权开展此次重组，国会也未批准特朗普政府 overhaul 该部门的请求。
农业部在法庭文件中反驳称，其拥有“重组内部结构的广泛法定权力”，并表示已就重组计划通知了国会。
CNN已联系农业部征求评论。
部分农业部员工已收到搬迁通知，其他人仍在等待官方消息——这让他们陷入不确定状态。
一名认为自己将不得不搬迁数百英里的员工已经打定主意不会这么做。他们的伴侣在现居地有一份不错的工作，他们还要在附近照顾一名身患重病的家庭成员。此外，当前抵押贷款利率过高，他们无力在其他城市购房。因此，他们正在加紧寻找新工作。
“我原本打算在这里度过职业生涯，并在机构内获得晋升，”这名要求匿名以保护工作的员工告诉CNN。“现在我意识到，我实际上被解雇只是时间问题。”
另一名农业部员工表示，她不得不不去想这次重组——它也会迫使她远离现居地数百英里，否则“这会彻底压垮我，根本无法工作”。
尽管如此，“这件事始终萦绕在我心头——下一封邮件会不会就是我的搬迁通知？”这名不愿透露姓名以保住工作的员工说道。
美国州、县和市政雇员联合会3870地方分会主席谢尔里斯·沃恩是农业部农村发展局45名工会员工之一，他们在6月接到通知，需从华盛顿特区迁至达拉斯。但他们未收到具体时间表，因此目前处于紧张的等待状态，她说道。
约三分之二参与工会调查的受访者表示，他们不太可能搬迁，因为这将带来极大困难。其中一人有一名患有自闭症的儿子，其医生就在当地。其他人则有监护权安排，无法将子女带离本州。还有一些人需要照顾年迈的父母。
虽然沃恩在华盛顿特区地区没有直系亲属，但她也不愿彻底改变自己的生活。她在等待更多搬迁细节后再做决定。但她已经致电达拉斯的一些朋友和家人，询问不同社区的情况，并开始清理车库，以防未来几个月需要出租或出售位于华盛顿的住房。
“我不会让别人按照他们的时间表，把我从一份干了30年的职业生涯中赶走，”她告诉CNN。
对一些在农业部工作多年的员工来说，此次重组是压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草——即便他们并未被强迫搬迁。
林务局的一名主管接到通知，称她将在同一地点从事基本相同的工作。但自特朗普就职以来，她所经历的混乱和不尊重感让她身心俱疲，以至于她申请参与该机构提供的、将于10月底前离职的激励计划。
此举将带来重大经济损失，包括可能兑现退休基金或出售房产。在她和孩子居住的农村地区，高薪工作并不多。但这名要求匿名以保护工作的主管表示，留在农业部已经不值得她付出身心健康的代价。
“过去一年是我职业生涯中压力最大的一年，”她说。“这不是我当初应聘时所期望的。”
最初，农业部估计此次搬迁将导致大规模离职——几个机构的员工流失率接近一半。其《机构裁员与重组计划》于2025年春季提交给白宫两个办公室，直到最近才在法庭文件中公开。该计划预计员工人数将较2025年1月的约10.3万人减少23%。
“农业部预计，相当多员工将拒绝从国家首都地区或现有区域/州级办公室迁往五个目标枢纽地点，”该计划写道。
但根据一份法庭文件，该部门如今表示，去年的计划并未反映其当前战略。最新计划预计将招聘约1.6万名员工，不过这一数字包括现有员工的内部调动和晋升。农业部并不打算开展裁员，也预计员工流失率不会像以往搬迁时那么高，部分原因是目前华盛顿特区的就业市场更为疲软，文件称。
尽管如此，农业部仍在推进此次重组，涉及将员工重新调配至其他办公室。工会和其他原告在法庭上辩称，农业部已向国会提交的各机构最新计划“与”去年的计划“几乎一致”，仅做了“微不足道”的调整。
例如，根据7月30日最后更新的机构重组网站文件，食品和营养管理局的最新计划要求将7个区域办公室缩减为5个枢纽。三个新城市的枢纽将与丹佛和达拉斯现有的办公室合并。一份法庭文件显示，多个区域办公室将被关闭。
去年的计划预计，此次重组将导致该机构约46%的员工流失。
在重组网站上，该机构称有关其试图解雇员工的指控是一个“误区”。此次行动不包括任何裁员，其指出。
与此同时，2019年将大量员工迁至堪萨斯城的两个机构——经济研究服务局和国家食品与农业研究所——将再次将部分员工调配至该地，根据两个机构的重组网站。在去年的计划中，预计此举将分别导致43%和39%的员工流失。
自特朗普就职以来，农业部的员工队伍已经在不断缩减。根据美国人事管理办公室的数据，已有超过2.8万人离职，包括通过政府的延期辞职计划、其他激励优惠、退休和主动辞职。（考虑到新招聘人员，该部门的 workforce 已减少近1.6万人。）
农业部的重组是特朗普第二届政府期间对联邦政府实施的较为激进的改革之一。总统曾誓言要 overhaul 联邦部门并缩减联邦 workforce，他认为这是实现其政策目标的障碍。
除了解散美国国际开发署、削弱消费者金融保护局外，特朗普政府还将教育部的许多职责转移至其他部门，以缩减该机构规模。其他机构，如NASA和陆军工程兵团，正在终止租约或搬迁至其他办公室。还有一些机构，如能源部，正在缩小其在华盛顿特区都会区的办公规模。
值得注意的是，位于华盛顿都会区的农业部员工占比不到7%。
CNN采访的多名农业部员工表示，他们担心此次重组引发的辞职潮只会损害该部门为低收入美国人、农民、州和地方机构以及其他利益相关方提供的服务。
沃恩和她的同事们为全国范围内的农村水利系统、电力合作社、宽带网络和小企业提供贷款和拨款担保——这类项目通常是私营放贷机构不愿涉足的，她说。他们的项目包括为佐治亚州一家医院建造全天候急诊产科护理单元提供资金；为华盛顿州居民接入高速互联网提供拨款；以及在卡特里娜飓风后为密西西比州重建输电线路提供贷款。
沃恩指出，此次重组将涉及纳税人资金用于搬迁费用、离职员工的遣散费以及招聘或培训替代人员。
“所有这些额外成本都不会改善服务，也不会让我们更贴近社区，因为我们服务的是全国所有州，”她说。“这只会风险失去那些真正懂行的员工。”
经验丰富员工的潜在流失是全国WIC协会的一大担忧。该协会代表着1.2万个州和地方机构，为近700万孕妇、新妈妈和幼儿提供WIC项目的营养服务。资金本就紧张，且经常在各州机构之间重新分配。
该协会公共政策主任阿里·哈德表示，这意味着服务提供商必须与农业部食品和营养管理局的员工就资金和政策事宜保持密切沟通。该协会也是该联盟诉讼的原告之一。她称，去年员工缩减已经导致两个州因资金短缺险些暂时停发福利。
“如果我们在区域办公室没有真正合格、经验丰富的人员作为与各州的第一沟通渠道，我们真的担心资金可能无法在正确的时间流向正确的地方，”哈德说。“我们可以看到各州真的陷入困境，无法为所有人提供服务。”
农业部在一份法庭文件中表示，资金延误并非 staffing 问题，而是资金可用性和标准财政流程导致的。
在某些情况下，此次重组将使农业部员工与他们所支持的各州和民众之间的距离更远。例如，哈德指出，波士顿的东北部区域办公室关闭后，新英格兰各州将由北卡罗来纳州罗利的新枢纽提供服务。
一名CNN采访的员工对此表示认同，称此次重组只会让她和同事更难、成本更高地拜访合作的州官员，以及参加州机构的面对面会议。
“我不应该为了离我服务的人更远，而彻底改变我的个人生活，”这名农业部员工告诉CNN。
Trump’s overhaul of the federal workforce isn’t quite over
2026-08-14T10:00:31.220Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/14/politics/usda-staffers-federal-workforce-vis
When Laura Dodson received a notice in late June that her job as an agricultural economist was being relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, she knew what it would mean for herself and dozens of her coworkers in the same situation and for the services they provide to farmers, researchers and the public.
During the first Trump administration, in 2019, the US Department of Agriculture reassigned many employees in her agency, the Economic Research Service (ERS), and in another small institute to Kansas City, saying it would save taxpayers money and shift workers closer to “stakeholders.”
However, many people refused to move, which resulted in the two agencies losing more than half their staff, producing fewer reports and journal articles, and processing grants more slowly for the next few years, according to a federal watchdog report.
Those who remained were demoralized and had to contend with a chaotic work environment, said Dodson, who serves as vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403.
Now, Dodson fears that as many as 80% of her ERS colleagues who received relocation notices will choose to leave. Only 6% of those surveyed by Local 3403 said they would move. Another 25% said they were unsure.
“The USDA knows what happened; they know the results,” said Dodson, who received a work-related exemption that gives her until January to move hundreds of miles, though she is also actively looking for other jobs, including in the private sector. “They ran the experiment in 2019.”
Prompting staffers to leave is the main goal behind the USDA’s reorganization, according to Dodson and multiple other union members interviewed by CNN. Many call it a RIF, or reduction in force, disguised as a relocation — a view echoed in a lawsuit filed last month by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward on behalf of a coalition of unions, municipalities and nonprofit organizations seeking to stop the effort.
When the USDA announced in July 2025 that it would reorganize its workforce, it said it was “refocusing its core operations to better align with its founding mission of supporting American farming, ranching and forestry.” But the department also said the initiative was another step in reducing its workforce to “make certain USDA can afford” it, noting that its headcount had grown in recent years.
In a statement to CNN, the department reiterated that the reorganization is “about aligning people, service delivery, and financial resources.”
“All current employees have a future with the Department if they so choose,” a USDA spokesperson said in the statement, noting that the USDA has said it will reimburse relocation expenses for those required to move.
The reorganization comes amid a deep downsizing at the department since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, with tens of thousands of staffers quitting, retiring and taking incentive programs to leave.
The coalition argues in the lawsuit that the USDA doesn’t have the authority to carry out the reorganization and that Congress did not approve the Trump administration’s request to overhaul the department.
The USDA counters that it has “broad statutory authority to reorganize its internal structure,” according to court documents. And the department said it has notified Congress of its reorganization plans.
CNN has reached out to the USDA for comment.
Some USDA employees have already received their relocation notices, while others are still waiting for official word — leaving them in limbo.
One worker who believes they would have to move hundreds of miles away has already decided that’s not going to happen. Their partner has a good job where they live now and they take care of a seriously ill family member nearby. Plus, mortgage rates are too high to allow them to buy a home in a different city. So they are ramping up their search for new employment.
“I planned to spend my career here and advance within the agency,” the staffer, who asked for anonymity to protect their job, told CNN. “Now I realize it’s just a matter of time before I’m effectively laid off.”
Another USDA employee said she had to stop thinking about the reorganization, which would also force her to move hundreds of miles away from where she lives now, or it would “consume me. It would make it impossible to work.”
Still, “It’s always in the back of my head — what if the next email is my relocation notice?” said the staffer, who did not want her name used to protect her employment.
Chearice Vaughn, president of the American Federation of State, County and MunicipalEmployees Local 3870, is among the 45 union employees in USDA’s Rural Development agency who were told in June that they will have to relocate from Washington, DC, to Dallas. But they weren’t given a timeline, so they are now in a stressful holding pattern, she said.
About two-thirds of those who answered a union survey said it is unlikely that they will move because it would be a hardship. One has a son with autism whose doctors are in the area. Others have custody arrangements where they can’t take their children out of state. And still others are caring for elderly parents.
While Vaughn doesn’t have immediate family in the Washington, DC, area, she isn’t eager to uproot her life either. She’s waiting for more details about the relocation before she makes any decisions. But she has called some friends and family in Dallas asking about different neighborhoods and has started cleaning out her garage in case she has to rent or sell her home in coming months.
“I’m not going to let someone force me out of a 30-year career on their timeline,” she told CNN.
For some longtime USDA staffers, the reorganization is the last straw – even if they aren’t being forced to relocate.
One supervisor in the Forest Service was told that she will have essentially the same job in the same location. But the chaos and feeling of disrespect that she’s endured since Trump took office has left her so burned out that she applied to take an incentive her agency is offering for employees to leave by the end of October.
Doing so will entail major financial sacrifices, including possibly cashing out her retirement fund or selling her home. There aren’t a lot of high-paying jobs in the rural area where she and her child live. But staying with USDA isn’t worth the toll on her physical and mental health, said the supervisor, who requested her name not be used to protect her job.
“The last year was the most stressful of all my years,” she said. “It’s not what I signed up to do.”
Initially, the USDA estimated the relocations would result in sweeping departures — close to half of the staff in several agencies. Its Agency RIF and Reorganization Plan, which was filed with two White House offices in the spring of 2025 but only made public in recent court documents, expected the headcount to shrink by 23% from its January 2025 level of roughly 103,000 personnel.
“USDA is anticipating that a significant number of employees will decline geographic reassignments out of the NCR (National Capital Region) or existing regional or state offices to the five target hub locations,” the plan says.
But the department now says that last year’s plan does not reflect its current strategy, according to a court filing. The latest plan calls for hiring roughly 16,000 employees, though that figure includes internal shifts and promotions of current workers. The USDA does not intend to conduct a reduction in force, and it does not expect staff attrition rates to be as high as they were in past relocations, in part because the Washington, DC, job market is weaker now, according to the filing.
Still, the USDA is moving forward with the reorganization effort, which will involve reassigning employees to other offices. And the coalition of unions and other plaintiffs is arguing in court that USDA’s updated plans for its agencies, which the department has shared with Congress, “mirror” last year’s plan with only “insubstantial” adjustments.
At the Food and Nutrition Administration, for instance, the latest plan calls for shifting from seven regional offices to five hubs, according to documents on an agency reorganization website that was last updated on July 30. Hubs in three new cities will join existing offices in Denver and Dallas. Multiple regional offices will be closed, according to a court filing.
Last year’s plan forecasted that the agency would lose about 46% of employees as a result of the reorganization.
On the reorganization website, the agency calls the accusation that it is trying to get rid of employees a “myth.” The effort does not include any layoffs, it noted.
Meanwhile, the two agencies that relocated many employees to Kansas City in 2019 — ERS and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – will once again reassign certain staffers there, according to the agencies’ reorganization websites. In last year’s plan, the moves were forecasted to reduce staff by 43% and 39%, respectively.
The USDA has already been bleeding staff since Trump took office. More than 28,000 people have left, including through the administration’s deferred resignation program, other incentive offers, retirements and resignations, according to the Office of Personnel Management. (Taking into account new hires, the department’s workforce is down nearly 16,000 people.)
The USDA’s reorganization is one of the more aggressive changes to the federal government under the second Trump administration. The president has vowed to overhaul federal departments and shrink the federal workforce, which he views as an obstacle to his implementing his policy objectives.
In addition to dismantling the US Agency for International Development and hobbling the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the Trump administration is shrinking the Department of Education by shifting many of its responsibilities to other departments. Other agencies, such as NASA and the Army Corps of Engineers, are ending leases or moving to other offices. And still others, such as the Department of Energy, are shrinking their footprint in the Washington, DC, metro area.
Notably, only a small share of USDA’s workers are located in the DC metro region — less than 7%.
Multiple USDA staffers that CNN interviewed said they feared that the resignations sparked by the reorganization will only harm the service that the department provides to low-income Americans, farmers, state and local agencies, and other stakeholders.
Vaughn and her colleagues underwrite and service loans and grants for rural water systems, electric co-ops, broadband networks and small businesses across the nation — the kind that private lenders typically don’t touch, she said. Their projects include funding for a Georgia hospital to build an emergency obstetrics care unit that’s open around the clock; a grant to connect Washington state residents to high-speed internet; and a loan to rebuild power lines in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.
The reorganization will involve spending taxpayer dollars on relocation expenses, on severance for those who leave and on hiring or training replacements, Vaughn noted.
“All these additional costs don’t improve service, don’t make us closer to communities since we serve all states,” she said. “It just risks losing the people who know how to do the work.”
The potential departure of experienced staffers is a major concern for the National WIC Association, which represents the 12,000 state and local agencies that provide nutrition services for nearly 7 million pregnant women, new moms and young children in the WIC program. Funding is tight, and money is regularly reallocated among state agencies.
That means the providers must keep in close touch with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration employees over funding and policy matters, said Ali Hard, public policy director at the association, which is a plaintiff in the coalition’s lawsuit. Already, the staff downsizing led to two states coming close to having to temporarily turn off benefits because of funding shortfalls last year, she said.
“If we don’t have really qualified, experienced folks in those regional offices who are that first line of communication with the states, we’re really worried that funding could end up not being in the right place at the right time,” Hard said. “We can see states really in trouble of just not being able to serve everyone.”
The USDA said in a court filing that the funding delays were not due to staffing, but to funding availability and standard fiscal processes.
In some cases, the reorganization will put more distance between USDA staffers and the states and people they support. For instance, the closing of the Northeast regional office in Boston means New England states will be served by the new hub in Raleigh, North Carolina, Hard noted.
One of the staffers CNN interviewed agreed, saying the reorganization will only make it more difficult and expensive for her and her colleagues to visit the state officials with whom they work and to attend in-person meetings at state agencies.
“I shouldn’t have to uproot my personal life to be farther away from the people that I serve,” the USDA worker told CNN.