Fresh off the news that over 62,000 federal jobs have been eliminated or relocated out of Washington since President Donald Trump took office for his second term, another 200 jobs will be relocated from the swamp to Iowa and Georgia. 

“Consolidating support operations in Iowa, strengthening scientific work in Georgia, and aligning staff with mission needs will reduce duplication and improve accountability,” Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen A. Vaden said about the recent shift.

The Trump USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is relocating roughly two-thirds of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) National Capital Region (headquarters) workforce from the Washington, D.C. area. 

These are primarily administrative, technical, and support staff (not frontline meat, poultry and egg inspectors, who make up roughly 85% of FSIS’s 7,500-plus employees and already work at production facilities nationwide). 

The move will relocate the roughly 200 staffers to the new National Food Safety Center in Urbandale, Iowa, repurposing existing FSIS space to become the agency’s largest office and primary hub for resource management, training, IT, finance and administrative operations.

Additional staff will relocate to the new Science Center in Athens, Georgia, expanding the existing Eastern Field Services Laboratory with enhanced microbiology, chemistry, and epidemiology capabilities.

A smaller group will move to Fort Collins, Colorado, for international trade and regulatory work.
 About 100 policy, congressional, and inter agency roles will remain in D.C. No jobs are being eliminated – every employee keeps their position and grade.

FSIS (and its predecessor agencies) has maintained its core headquarters and policy/leadership functions in the D.C. metro area for decades, creating a classic Beltway-centric structure disconnected from the farms, slaughterhouses, and processing plants it regulates. 

The reorganization and part of Secretary Brooke Rollins’ broader USDA efficiency push marks the first major shift of FSIS headquarters operations out of the National Capital Region.

The move is yet another step in Trump's America-First realignment that puts decision-makers closer to the agricultural heartland where the actual food-safety mission happens, slashing redundant D.C. bureaucracy, cutting costs, and delivering faster, more accountable results for farmers, processors, and consumers. 

Iowa, which is a top pork, beef, and egg state, and Georgia, which is a poultry powerhouse, are logical hubs that can embed expertise directly in the production zones that FSIS oversees every day, reducing the “ivory tower” disconnect that has plagued the agency. 

The exodus follows Trump’s successful first-term USDA relocations (like the Economic Research Service (ERS)/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City) and his repeated pledge to prioritize rural America over Beltway insiders. 

The Trump administration in early April announced plans to move U.S. Forest Service headquarters out of Washington to SAlt Lake City, Utah, and close dozens of facilities across the country.

“​​Moving the Forest Service closer to the forests we manage is an essential action that will improve our core mission of managing our forests while saving taxpayer dollars and boosting employee recruitment," USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said.

Taxpayers should benefit with lower overhead in high-cost D.C.; rural economies gain high-paying federal jobs; and the agency gains a leaner, more responsive structure focused on results instead of red tape – the kind of government efficiency Trump has demanded.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Much like his first campaigns in 2016 and 2020, Trump ran on downsizing the Washington bureaucracy and draining the swamp even further in 2024. 

He has consistently railed against Washington’s entrenched special interests, career politicians, lobbyists, and bureaucratic elites whom he said had rigged the system against everyday Americans. 

The phrase "drain the swamp" became a signature rallying cry during the 2016 race, especially in the final stretch when he repeatedly vowed to slash regulations, impose lobbying bans, and break the revolving door between government and big-money insiders.

In his first term, Trump acted on the pledge through executive orders banning former officials from lobbying for five years, a government hiring freeze, massive deregulation cutting thousands of pages of rules, and relocating federal agencies outside the D.C. Beltway to reduce insider influence.

He has revived and expanded the effort in his current term with renewed focus on government efficiency, Schedule F reforms to make bureaucrats more accountable, and initiatives like the USDA headquarters moves.