Trump wants USDA jobs moved to Kansas City. It wouldn’t be the first time
When the U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled a reorganization Thursday that moves employees to Kansas City from Washington, D.C., the announcement followed a familiar trend from President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration has routinely targeted Kansas City as a potential relocation spot for federal jobs, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other USDA positions. The moves are largely in line with the Republican president’s attempts to shake up the federal government and slash what he views as a bloated bureaucracy.
During Trump’s first administration, the USDA relocated two offices to Kansas City in 2019. While touted as a cost-saving measure that placed the agency closer to farmers, the move triggered a mass exodus of government workers and a drop in productivity.
A 2022 Government Accountability Office report found that the agency lost “a significant number” of employees following the relocation.
Thursday’s announcement from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins sidestepped those concerns. While short on specific employee numbers, Rollins said the reorganization would bring the agency closer to the people it serves and move employees to less expensive cities, such as Kansas City.
“President Trump was elected to make real change in Washington, and we are doing just that by moving our key services outside the beltway and into great American cities across the country,” Rollins said in the announcement.
The move also echoes comments Trump made on the campaign trail in 2023, when he promised to “move parts of the federal bureaucracy outside of the Washington Swamp.”
“As many as 100,000 government positions can be moved out — and I mean immediately — of Washington to places filled with patriots who love America,” Trump said in a video posted on his campaign website.
Missouri Republican lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt and Rep. Mark Alford, quickly celebrated Thursday’s announcement, touting Kansas City’s central location and proximity to farmers.
“Kansas City, which sits in the heartland of America and already houses key USDA offices, is a great place for this relocation,” Schmitt said in a statement.
More jobs in KC?
The USDA is also not the only agency that the Trump administration has floated for relocation to Kansas City.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel told Congress in May that the FBI was eyeing the relocation of about three dozen positions to Missouri, including 33 positions to the Kansas City field office, two to Springfield and one each to Topeka, Wichita and Jefferson City.
Patel testified that the agency was looking to relocate more than 1,000 jobs out of D.C. into field offices around the country and framed the move as a way to help address an “explosion of violent crime” in the Midwest.
While Patel was more specific about the FBI plans, Rollins did not say on Thursday how many USDA jobs would come to Kansas City. However, the announcement said no more than 2,000 of the 4,600 USDA employees in the D.C. area were expected to remain there.
“To make certain USDA can afford its workforce, this reorganization is another step of the Department’s process of reducing its workforce,” the announcement said.
Over the next month, the announcement said, USDA leaders would provide offices with more information about the relocation process.
This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 1:28 PM.
