Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 8/6/19

The department’s inspector general on Monday released a long-awaited report on the relocation of the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture from Washington to Kansas City. But with lawmakers out of town for the long August recess and the relocation already underway, it’s unclear if the findings will have much impact.

The watchdog probe found that USDA officials have the legal authority to carry out the relocation — but not necessarily the budget authority to do so, reports Pro Ag’s Liz Crampton. For example, investigators said USDA failed to meet a 60-day deadline to report to Congress how the department intended to use $6 million provided for NIFA relocation expenses in a fiscal 2018 spending package.

USDA General Counsel Stephen Vaden said in a July memo that the appropriations provisions requiring Congress to sign off on the move were unconstitutional, so the department did follow the law.

Now what? The findings offer fresh fodder for Democrats who have opposed the relocation and struggled to keep USDA from moving forward. But lawmakers are already gone for the summer, and the window for Congress to take action has effectively closed. Three-hundred employees are set to be relocated before both chambers reconvene on Sept. 9

The report also doesn’t answer some of the biggest questions about the motivations behind the move. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said it “fails to address numerous other concerns” including whether officials were retaliating against the agencies for their scientific reports that are sometimes unflattering to Trump administration policies.

Secretary Sonny Perdue has repeatedly said the move will save taxpayer money and help attract and retain employees. But acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney largely undermined that over the weekend when he hailed the relocation as “a wonderful way” to shrink the agencies, which are facing an exodus of employees.

J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents ERS and NIFA employees, said in a statement that Mulvaney’s comments confirmed USDA’s goal was “to drive out hardworking and dedicated civil servants and silence the parts of the agencies’ research that the administration views as inconvenient.”