GAO Raises Concerns About Reorganization Planning and Transparency

USDA announced its reorganization plan in July 2025, outlining efforts to relocate at least 2,600 employees from the Washington D.C. area to locations across the country, consolidate support functions, and eliminate management layers. USDA said the changes were intended to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and bring department resources closer to the communities they serve.

However, GAO reported that USDA did not provide documentation demonstrating what analyses informed the specific decisions outlined in the reorganization announcement, despite repeated requests.

Consequently, GAO could not determine whether USDA had adequately evaluated the reorganization's potential effects on service delivery, economic costs and benefits, federal property management, or strategic workforce planning.

GAO also highlighted its previous findings regarding USDA's 2019 relocation of USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City, Missouri. Both offices lost more than half of their employees following the relocation, experienced declines in staff experience and productivity, and generally recovered their previous staffing and productivity levels within two years.

Reorganization May Worsen USDA Staff Attrition; FSIS Workforce Shrunk 12 Percent

According to GAO, all eight USDA mission areas have experienced workforce reductions since the inauguration of President Trump, whose Administration has implemented initiatives specifically designed to reduce the federal workforce.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has experienced a 12.1 percent workforce reduction, losing 1,015 employees. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) lost 22.8 percent of its workforce, while the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) experienced a 13.7 percent reduction.

Other significant workforce reductions included the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which lost 32 percent of its employees, and NIFA, which experienced the largest percentage decrease of any individual USDA agency, at 41.4 percent.

Overall, USDA recorded 25,448 employee separations and 7,197 hires between January 2025 and March 2026. Approximately 52 percent of separations were associated with the Trump Administration’s Deferred Resignation Program.

Stakeholders have previously expressed concerns that forced relocations under USDA’s reorganization will only exacerbate workforce attrition. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins herself has shared her expectation that as many as 50 percent of USDA’s Washington D.C.-area staff could resign rather than relocate.

USDA Defends Reorganization Despite GAO Report, Court Challenges 

In comments on the new report, USDA defended its reorganization, citing financial pressures, workforce growth under the previous administration, and underutilized federal office space. GAO maintained that the department had not provided documentation demonstrating how these considerations informed its specific reorganization decisions.

The reorganization has also faced legal challenges. In October 2026, a federal district court ordered much of USDA's reorganization plan to be temporarily halted during ongoing litigation. USDA subsequently filed notice of its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Secretary Rollins has said that USDA remains "full-bore ahead" with its reorganization plans, despite the court-ordered pause.