Hawley, Blackburn, Introduce Bill to Move Most Federal Agencies

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced legislation this week to move the Department of Agriculture to Missouri. Joined by Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, the Republicans seek to move the headquarters of USDA to Missouri and the Department of Education to Tennessee. However, the legislation doesn’t stop there, as the bill would move 90 percent of ten federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., and into what the lawmakers describe as economically distressed regions. Hawley claims federal employees of the two agencies are “too removed from the rest of America.” The Helping Infrastructure Restore the Economy, or HIRE Act, the Senators claim, would “move policymakers directly into the communities they serve.” Senator Blackburn says moving federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., “boosts local economies and lowers costs.” The Senators cited the relocation of two USDA agencies, the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, along with the Bureau of Land Management’s planned move to Colorado, in introducing the legislation.