A federal judge ordered USDA to halt its reorganization and employee relocation plan, finding that it likely violated a congressional directive prohibiting funds from being spent for that purpose. The measure covers the Forest Service and the Foreign Agricultural Service, among other agencies.
A federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to halt its reorganization and employee relocation plan, finding that the department likely violated a congressional directive prohibiting it from spending money for that purpose. The ruling by District Judge Vince Chhabria covers thousands of employees and several agencies of the department.
The fiscal 2026 agriculture spending law barred USDA from reprogramming funds to proceed with the reorganization affecting thousands of department employees, and established that it had to obtain authorization from the Senate and House Appropriations committees before doing so. Both the plaintiffs, who include employee unions, and USDA agreed that the approval clause is unconstitutional, and Judge Chhabria agreed. However, he specified that the prohibition on reprogramming funds remains.
In his order, Chhabria held that the bill's explanatory statement, agency documents and President Donald Trump's budget proposal associated with the appropriations statute "show that Congress almost certainly did not intend for these funds to be used for office closures or employee relocations at the time it appropriated them."
The judge said he had "no view" on whether the reorganization is a good idea, but he faulted USDA for not analyzing the risks the reorganization could pose to the services the agency provides. "If the agency wishes to move forward with its plans to close offices and relocate employees, it will soon have the opportunity to convince Congress of the merits of those plans. Congress, if it agrees, can choose not to extend the restrictions at issue in this case," Chhabria wrote. The restrictions expire on Dec. 11, so Congress could revisit them in its next funding bill.
The stay specifically bars USDA from "closing or eliminating offices" at the component agencies affected by the reorganization plans, or "relocating or reassigning employees or their positions or functions to different or new locations outside the local commuting area, including by issuing or enforcing MDR letters or any other notice or directive of reassignment or relocation, in whole or in part."
The order applies to the Forest Service; the Food and Nutrition Administration; the Agricultural Research Service, including the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center; the Foreign Agricultural Service; Rural Development; the Office of the General Counsel; the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights; as well as the mission areas of Research, Education and Economics, and Farm Production and Conservation.
However, the order does not prevent USDA from closing offices in the Washington area, such as the South Building, which officials said earlier this year they intend to sell, or from moving employees within the region.
The ruling represents a victory for federal employee unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the AFL-CIO, which sued the government earlier this year.
At the end of September, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden anticipated that USDA could take the case to an appellate court if the judge moved forward with a preliminary injunction. "If we need to use them, we will. And I'm fully confident we'll win in any final legal action, because we have a lot of support among the farmers of this country and among their elected representatives in the halls of Congress, who are very anxious for us to build that new lab in Ames, Iowa," said Vaden, who oversees the reorganization and maintained that decisions about the department's management ultimately rest with the agriculture secretary and the president.
