Two weeks ago,
"Federal employees turned their backs in silent protest against Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue as he addressed employees Thursday about relocating their jobs from Washington to Kansas City.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s selection of Kansas City as the new home for 550 federal research jobs has been a major victory for policymakers in Kansas and Missouri. But for USDA employees with family and professional ties to the D.C. region, the Trump’s administration’s plan to move their jobs from Washington to the Midwest is bitter news."
The swamp masters in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives received that message loud n clear, then dutifully responded to protect their own in the D.C. swamp:
"Tuesday’s 227-194 vote looks to block a move that Kansas City leaders cheered for the 500-plus jobs it’s expected to move to the region but that has been criticized by some of the researchers who don’t want to leave Washington, D.C., and those who think the relocation is meant to diminish USDA research.
The appropriations bill, if passed in its current form, would take effect on Oct. 1. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has said he wants initial employees to report for work in temporary work space in Kansas City in September, a tight timeline possibly meant to begin the move using current year funds. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, has accused Perdue of rushing the move to avoid congressional opposition.
House Resolution 3055 awards $87.8 million to the Economic Research Service so long as none of the money is used to relocate the USDA research agency “outside the National Capital Region.” It awards another $1 billion to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the same terms."
Odd. I thought Leftists were all about 'spread the wealth.' Apparently, the swamp has special dispensation from its masters. However, I still say that a federal department of agriculture is a massive bureaucracy that has long since outlived its usefulness.
What does a National Institute of Food and Agriculture provide with $1 billion besides a massive jobs program for adults in the D.C. metro? Private agri-business is well-suited to provide the same R & D - plus more innovative, productive, and profitable results for a $1 billion federal contract.
I know. I'm small government dreaming. I'll take this small lump of a USDA move out of the D.C. swamp into to KCMO, for now, and keep moving by the right flank; move by the right flank....
Photo credit: Eric Bowers