Kansas City area Congressman Emanuel Cleaver says the Biden Administration will not move the newly-relocated USDA offices from Kansas City back to the nation’s capital.
Cleaver carries political clout with President Biden, who came to Kansas City at the congressman’s request during the campaign.
Missouri Farm Bureau leaders mentioned this as a concern immediately after the 2020 presidential election.
“I represent that area, I am the senior Democrat in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas. And I can tell you that there is no way that those agricultural offices will be moved against my political will. That’s just not going to happen,” Cleaver told Missourinet.’
“I heard the rumors over and over again and have not spoken about it publicly. I can tell you those offices are not going anywhere.
USDA’s Economic Research Service and National Institutes of Food & Agriculture moved to Kansas City last year. Though Cleaver supported the move, he predicted the USDA may lose some top employees — and they did —as 2/3 of the research and funding agencies’ staff in Washington DC quit.
Cleaver says any move back to Washington D.C. would be too expensive.
