When I used to work in the historic South Building, we used to joke about how the South Building is where the real work gets done, but not any more. The South Building and the Forestry Building are being closed by the Trump Administration.
There will no longer be “one stop shopping” for constituents who have multiple interests and policy needs served by USDA. Instead, they will find themselves traveling from city to city for wherever the USDA “gods” flung the policy shops.
Chris Clayton with Progressive Farmer has written an incredibly good overview of what is happening with the historic building. Read it at:
From New Deal Icon to Aging Infrastructure, USDA Weighs Closing South Building
Chris Clayton, Progressive Farmer
I worked in the South Building for roughly 10 years, plus another several in the Whitten Building where the Secretary’s and Under Secretary’s offices are. It’s always been my view that the South Building had the best office space of any government building I ever worked in, or toured, so I’m sorry to see it go.
“Deferred maintenance costs” is the official reason for the shut-down … but I have to wonder. This Trump Administration has decided that there isn’t enough staff (only 3000?) to fill the building and it costs too much to update its systems. It blames the Clinton Administration for transferring the upkeep over to the Government Services Administration (GSA), but funny thing, Trump’s plan is to give the whole building to GSA.
Another funny thing is to look at the reasons USDA only had 3000 employees in the building. It seems that about 18-25% of USDA’s workforce were pushed out by Musk, and his various programs to cut government without paying attention to employees’ work loads.
Another funny thing related to the Forest Service’s building, which is supposed to need renovation. Yes, it is getting kicked down the path of no return, too. Apparently, this building is supposed to be in need of renovation, too, but that renovation was done only a little more tha ten years ago.