AFGE’s legal fight over the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter federal agencies, fire and displace federal workers, and outlaw federal unions notched another significant victory last week when a federal judge blocked an unlawful reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The massive reorganization effort sought to forcibly transfer more than half of the USDA’s D.C.-based workforce out of the nation’s capital, decommission the historic Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, and relocate the D.C.-based headquarters for USDA divisions including the Economic Research Service (ERS), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and U.S. Forest Service.
AFGE sued the administration over the USDA reorganization plan in September along with a large coalition of plaintiffs including other USDA employee unions, nonprofits, cities, and counties.
On Oct. 13, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ordered the administration to stop parts of the unlawful reorganization.
“Congress did not contemplate USDA using its appropriated funds to shut down offices or relocate employees,” the judge said in his ruling.
USDA knew that its relocation plans would drive out its experienced people, yet never once did the agency study what losing that expertise would do to the department’s ability to meet its statutory obligations, our lawsuit argues. The Trump administration’s assault on USDA would have threatened the safety of our food, made wildfires harder to fight, left farmers with less support, and forced rural communities to wait longer for help.
“Congress told USDA in plain language that it could not close offices and uproot its workforce without permission. USDA did it anyway, so AFGE and our partners took them to court. These forced moves were never about efficiency. They were about pushing experienced people out the door,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement following the judge’s ruling.
The judge’s ruling immediately halts the closure of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, an award-winning research facility that was slated for decommissioning.
“We are an epicenter for so much research that provides safety and security for our food sources, our basic thing,” AFGE Local 3147 Vice President Teddi Mitchell told NBC Washington affiliate WRC. “And that means that a lot of this important research will continue. It also means a lot of federal employees and the community will have jobs remain in the area.”
One day after the judge issued his ruling, the Government Accountability Project submitted a protected whistleblower disclosure to Congress on behalf of multiple current and former USDA employees at the Beltsville lab.
The whistleblower complaint outlines how USDA’s reorganization effort constitutes gross mismanagement by USDA leaders, wastes taxpayer money, and endangers public health and food safety. It urges Congress to investigate USDA’s plans and efforts to close the lab and to hold USDA leadership accountable through hearings, oversight, and other review.
Click here for a full summary of our lawsuits.
Written by OPEIU 2 AFL-CIO
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