The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report stating the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not provide documentation showing it analyzed the potential impacts of its 2025 reorganization plan. The report, released Nov. 9, 2026, reviewed the department’s effort to relocate thousands of staff positions from the National Capital Region to five hub locations across the country.
Without such analysis, the GAO said Congress and the public lack information on how the reorganization could affect service delivery, the economic effects of the reorganization, or how to protect taxpayers’ dollars. The GAO stated it is unclear if the plans were based on leading practices, like strategic workforce planning, that would better position the agency to address possible effects.
In July 2025, the department announced a plan to reorganize the department, including relocating staff positions to the hub locations. In the spring of 2026, all eight USDA mission areas and several agencies announced reorganization plans, including relocating certain agency functions. The department’s actions are the subject of federal litigation seeking to stop the implementation of the reorganization plan.
The GAO reported that the department’s workforce decreased by 20 percent from December 2024 through March 2026, falling from about 91,000 employees to about 73,000. Individual agencies within the department saw staffing drops ranging from 12 percent at the Forest Service to 41 percent at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The department began the reorganization effort at the same time it took steps to reduce the size of its workforce, such as offering incentives for employees to voluntarily resign or retire in response to presidential directives, according to the report.
The GAO noted that the USDA did not respond to requests for information on the analyses the department conducted to inform the 2025 plan. Several leading practices can help agencies conduct appropriate analyses and make sound decisions when they reorganize and relocate staff, the GAO said. These include practices related to planning for agency reforms, conducting economic analysis, and assessing management of federal real property assets.
The report also highlighted a previous USDA relocation in 2019 involving the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Following these moves, more than half of these agencies’ staff left, which affected workforce experience levels and composition and agency productivity. The GAO reported that overall staffing levels and productivity generally returned to previous levels two years after these relocations.