The deputy Minister of Agriculture of the US Agriculture, Stephen Alexander Vaden, testifies to the US Senate on July 30, 2025 in front of the US Agricultural Committee (Photo on Committee Livestream)
Members of both parties from the US Senate’s US Agriculture Committee contested an official of the US Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday because he had not advised the congress before suggesting thousands of jobs from the Washington, DC.
The deputy USDA secretary Stephen Alexander Vaden defended the comprehensive proposal, the secretary Brooke Rollins announced with A Five-page memo Last week it would lend a hand to bring the department closer to people who supervises and reduces the living costs for federal workers, while they are committed to working with members of the committee in the next planning month.
“The secretary’s memorandum was the first step, not the last step,” said Vaden by Amy Klobuchar von Minnesota, the top democrat of the panel, which criticized several aspects of the plan.
The proposal stipulates to shorten 2,600 of the 4,600 USDA workstations in the Columbia, Maryland and Virginia district and to expand the footprint of the department in five regional hubs: Raleigh, North Carolina; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Fort Collins, Colorado; And Salt Lake City.
Klobuchar said that moving workers from the capital region damage the USDA constituency. Agency officers should be nearby to meet members of the congress, other executive branches and trade groups that are located in the country’s capital, she said.
“Usda’s resources to do this crucial work brings rural America to a disadvantage if they have no people in the room in which it happens,” said Klobuchar.
“We have differences in the aisle,” she continued. “But I think each of my colleagues understands that they need people who can meet with them.
Vaden said the USDA would keep employees in all mission areas in the department in the Washington area.
No advance notice
Even Republicans who said that they generally agreed with the goals of the proposal stated that they did not appreciate the lack of announcement before it was announced.
“I support cost savings where you can. I support the idea of bringing people from the DC area and into the field and closer to the farmer,” said John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota. “We support the goals, but we want it to be a process in which you work with the congress, with the Senate, both the approval committee and the appropriation committee, and we will achieve these results together. And I think that will help to receive a lot more support for the efforts.”
In a declaration of opening, the chairman John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas, thanked Vaden for the hearing for “very, very short time”,
Klobuchar has questioned this description.
“The reason why it is at short notice is that the administration has highlighted a half -baked plan without notice and without advising the agricultural guide,” she said.
Interest groups were not communicated before the announcement, Vaden told Klobuchar, although the office for management and the budget of the White House received termination.
In response to complaints about the lack of commitment to the congress, Vaden said that legislators were informed at the same time as USDA employees, shortly before the announcement was public, and he emphasized that the announcement began a 30-day engagement period in which the congress was involved.
It also compared the reorganization plan with the distant work, which used the department of the department far beyond the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic.
“From January 2021 to January 2025, the bids administration left 2,200 employees Washington, DC,” he said. “There was no announcement of the congress, there was no outcry, there was no hearing from the committee. For more than 1,700 days, the USDA had been far beyond any fair definition of the Covid pandemic.
The Republicans in the middle west annoyed
Some Republicans of the committee offered the proposal to have hearty recommendations, including Jim Justice of West Virginia, who used his time to promote the plan instead of asking Vader.
“I have no questions,” said Justice. “Everything I tell you is, we absolutely have to move and do the best that we can do for these great people.”
However, the problem has exceeded the party lines in several cases. Some Republicans, whose states were exaggerated when choosing the proposed hubs, had piercing questions to Vaden, while some Democrats who had a federal presence as part of the proposal were less critical.
Hoeven questioned the proposed viewing selection and found that Fargo, North Dakota, had no stroke within 600 miles. Fargo is “in the heart of the AG land,” said Hoeven.
“What is magic about five hubs?” he asked. “How much agriculture is there in the state of Utah? We can go through all of these things and whether it is actually easier or better for our farmers and our ranchers in North Dakota, given the five hubs they have selected.”
According to the USDAS 2023 Statistics.
No Nebraska Hub
The Republican Deb Fischer in Nebraska said that she discussed with Vaden with Vaden this year before his hearing, and the opportunity to move some of the USDA workforce outside the Beltway, and was a suitable place for Nebraska.
For this reason, it was underwhelmed by the proposal and its introduction.
“I would have liked to see a process that made Nebraska possible to demonstrate his strong promise of values,” she said. “While I agree with the overarching goal here, I have to express disappointment about how this was introduced and the lack of commitment with the congress before the announcement.”
In the meantime, the Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, whose state would see a regional hub That would also accommodate a consolidated US Forest Service Office, he said, he agreed to the goals of the plan.
“For a long time I asked to try the idea of moving people from Washington, DC, to parts of the country, in order to get out of the isolation of this place in order to be only others, but also others,” said Bennet. “So philosophical, here I was.”
