Judge Blocks USDA From Relocating About 2,600 Staff, Citing Limits Congress Wrote Into Spending Law That Run to December 11

Judge Vince Chhabria of the federal district court in San Francisco on 13 October blocked the Agriculture Department from moving about 2,600 employees out of Washington and other offices under its reorganisation plan.

The judge relied on limits Congress wrote into appropriations law, which bar USDA from using funds to relocate staff or close offices without notifying and consulting the appropriations committees. Those provisions are in the continuing resolution that funds the government until 11 December. The order lasts at least as long as the limits remain in force.

The reorganisation

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the plan last year, moving much of the department’s Washington workforce to five regional hubs. Unions and staff sued. The department says the move brings staff closer to farmers and cuts costs. Critics point to the 2019 relocation of two research agencies to Kansas City, after which most staff quit and research output fell, according to a GAO review.

The Food and Nutrition Service, which runs SNAP and school meals, has lost about 30% of its staff, roughly 1,200 people, according to figures cited in the case. SNAP benefits now come with stricter work requirements and new cost-sharing for states under last year’s budget law.

Why it matters

The ruling shows appropriations riders working as Congress intends: a limit on how an agency spends money, enforced by a court. That puts the decision back with Congress. When the funding law expires on 11 December, the protection lapses unless the next spending bill repeats it, as covered in our post on the December cliff. Farm-state Republicans have been divided on the reorganisation, which makes the provision a likely bargaining point in the lame duck. The department is expected to appeal to the Ninth Circuit.