Source: Julie Larson Bricher, MEATINGPLACE, 11/29/18


Pushback from the agricultural community ratcheted up a notch this week as 21 prominent voices, including two former USDA chief scientists, sent a letter to Congress expressing concern about the decision to relocate two of the agency's research units outside of Washington, D.C.

In August, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) would be moving outside of the Capitol by the end of 2019. The Office of Inspector General is now reviewing whether USDA has the legal and budgetary authority to move the ERS into the Office of the Chief Economist, and relocate ERS and NIFA offices.

The ERS — a statistical agency — would be realigned outside the Research, Education and Economics (REE) mission area to a policy-supporting office, threatening its role as a policy-neutral agency, wrote the letter signers.

"The proposed restructuring is a major disruption in the USDA research arm that provides invaluable support for American food and agriculture," said Gale Buchanan, former USDA chief scientist and undersecretary for REE, in a press release. "The decades of planning and adjustments that have optimized the work of REE will be dismantled in a matter of months if this proposal is carried out as planned."

The group, along with the American Statistical Association (ASA) and others, is calling on Congress to protect ERS and NIFA as independent agencies so they maintain the quality, credibility and integrity of their research and statistical programs.

The latest letter outlines numerous risks associated with relocating NIFA and ERS outside the Washington, D.C., area, including:
• Loss of direct engagement with the broader scientific funding research community, including the National Science Foundation, USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and National Institutes of Health.
• Undermining of USDA funding of research, which has stagnated for the last 40 years.
• Weakening of coordination between NIFA and ERS and their sister REE agencies, the ARS and National Agricultural Statistics Service. The full impact has not been thoroughly examined, according to the signers of the letter who are urging Congress to intervene.

"The USDA did not consult stakeholders, Congress or the scientific community prior to this decision, and it is unclear what problems the USDA seeks to address with the relocation of these agencies," added Catherine Woteki, also a former USDA chief scientist and undersecretary for REE. "The high quality of work that these agencies produce will be jeopardized by the substantial staff loss that will occur as a result of the relocation. In addition, moving ERS out of REE to a policy-supporting office is likely to jeopardize the policy-neutral work of the agency."

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