USDA Faces Sweeping Reorganization Under Trump's Second Term

A new Congressional Research Service report gives lawmakers both a roadmap and a warning as the administration pushes ahead with USDA structure changes.

The Congressional Research Service published a report this week examining the organizational structure of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the reorganization proposals put forward by the second Trump administration. It gives Congress a detailed look at what's changing, what authority backs it, and what's at stake.

The report, titled "U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA): Structure and Proposed Changes," arrives as the administration moves aggressively to shrink the federal footprint at one of the government's largest departments by headcount. The implications for farmers, rural communities, and the federal workforce are significant.

The Plan: What USDA Structure Changes Are Proposed

The centerpiece of the Department of Agriculture reorganization is a Secretary's Memorandum issued July 24, 2025, by Secretary Brooke Rollins, titled "Department of Agriculture Reorganization Plan." The memo proposes four major structural changes:

  • Reduce USDA employees in the National Capital Region to no more than 2,000, a sharp reduction from the department's current Washington-area footprint.
  • Vacate USDA facilities in the National Capital Region, shrinking the department's physical presence in D.C.
  • Reduce regional and area offices for some USDA agencies, consolidating operations into fewer geographic hub locations.
  • Consolidate administrative functions across the department to eliminate redundancy and cut costs.

According to USDA's own public feedback analysis from December 2025, the reorganization plan rests on four pillars: workforce alignment; proximity to customers, namely farmers and rural communities; bureaucracy reduction; and consolidation of redundant functions.

A public comment period ran from August 1 through September 30, 2025.

The Administration's Rationale

The USDA's proposed reforms are explicitly tied to the broader DOGE-driven effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy. As the CRS report confirms, the agricultural department restructuring is part of the "second Trump Administration's reorganization and workforce reduction efforts throughout the executive branch."

Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden testified to Congress on July 30, 2025, that "President Trump made clear his second term would include relocating the sprawling federal bureaucracy to locations outside the National Capital Region," according to a USDA press release. The USDA plan is a direct implementation of that executive priority.

The Tension: Serving Rural America by Cutting Rural-Facing Staff

The central irony flagged in the CRS report's sourcing is hard to miss. USDA's core mission is to serve rural America. But critics argue the USDA policy changes are actively harming the communities the department exists to support.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has argued that staff cuts and office closures are leaving rural communities behind, particularly for agencies like Rural Development, which has already absorbed significant personnel reductions.

The consolidation of field offices raises concrete questions about access. If a farmer in a rural county needs to interact with a USDA program, and the nearest office has been folded into a regional hub hours away, the practical effect of the federal agriculture agency's restructuring falls directly on that farmer.

Congressional Scrutiny and USDA Structure Changes

The CRS report signals that Congress is not watching passively. Members have already launched formal oversight efforts.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam has opened a formal investigation into USDA's relocation and reorganization plan, per his office's press release. And legislation has followed: the Cost of Relocations Act, introduced by Rep. Subramanyam and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), would require cost analyses before federal agencies are relocated out of the National Capital Region. It's a direct legislative response to the USDA reorganization plan.

The CRS report itself is a tool for that oversight. By laying out the department's current structure alongside the proposed changes and the legal authorities underpinning them, it equips lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to ask sharper questions about what the administration can do unilaterally and where Congress has a say.

What Congress Is Watching

The report's publication comes at a moment when the administration's authority to reorganize USDA is itself under scrutiny. The Secretary's Memorandum that launched the reorganization is an executive directive, not a statute, meaning its scope and limits matter.

Longstanding statutory authorities, including those governing the Secretary's reorganization powers, frame what can be done without Congressional action. The full CRS report contains the complete legislative citations lawmakers will need to assess where executive authority ends and Congressional approval begins.

For members weighing oversight hearings, appropriations riders, or legislation like the Cost of Relocations Act, the CRS report provides the baseline. The USDA policy changes now underway are among the most consequential restructuring efforts at a major federal agency in recent memory, and the CRS has handed Congress the reference document to engage with them seriously.

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