Shawn Fleetwood writes for the Federalist about an interesting revelation about government workers in the nation’s capital.
Washington, D.C.-based bureaucrats lamented returning to in-person work and being transferred to various states to administer the nation’s food stamp programs, according to government communications shared with The Federalist. The batch of messages even documents one employee complaining about moving to red states like Texas due to their pro-life laws.
“Washington bureaucrats are eager to work from home, as long as home isn’t a red state where the people they serve live,” Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) Data Investigator Amelia Kuntzman told The Federalist.
Obtained by FGA via open records request, the communications detail an online May 1 town hall among Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees involved in administering food stamps and other food welfare programs. According to FGA, the meeting was closed to the public and press.
The town hall was held to solicit employee feedback on the USDA’s April 30 “reorganization and relocation” announcement that “program leadership and staff from Washington, D.C.” would be moved “to hub and program compliance locations across the U.S.” The agency touted the actions as an effort to “realign the Department’s focus to the States who administer USDA nutrition programs, the households who benefit from them, and the taxpayers who fund them.”
“On my first day leading the People’s Department, I shared several commitments to our state, tribal, territory, and local government partners, including prioritizing customer service and infusing each nutrition program with new energy and vision. This reorganization is designed with those commitments in mind,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at the time.
Among the major moves are shifting management of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to Indianapolis, Indiana; the Child Nutrition Programs to Dallas, Texas; and the Supplemental Nutrition and Safety Programs to Kansas City, Missouri. Other notable hub and office locations named in the plan include Raleigh, North Carolina; Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles, California; and New York, New York.
