USDA Lost a Third of DC Staff Even Before Relocation Effort

About a third of the US Department of Agriculture’s employees in the Washington area left the agency from January to June, as the Trump administration sought to aggressively trim what it sees as excessive government spending.

More than 1,000 employees at the agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters departed in the first half of the year, according to a Dec. 17 report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. About 18% of the USDA’s total employees — amounting to more than 20,000 workers — left during the period.