Democrats criticize USDA's Vaden over reorganization plan
May 13, 2026
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden held a closed-door meeting with House Ag Committee members Wednesday morning to field questions about USDA’s reorganization plan, drawing mixed reviews from lawmakers who attended the session.
While Republicans said they were satisfied with Vaden’s answers, Democrats complained that the meeting fell far short of the transparency that should accompany such a sweeping reshuffle.
While Republicans said they were satisfied with Vaden’s answers, Democrats complained that the meeting fell far short of the transparency that should accompany such a sweeping reshuffle.
“If the plan is as great as they say it is, they should be able to talk about it in full public view and let people hear the answers,” Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) told POLITICO. “This was not to gather information. This was to check a box to say he came before Congress.”
The massive reorganization plan announced by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last July will relocate thousands of jobs from the department’s Washington-area offices to hubs around the country. No public hearings have been held on the plan, which Vaden has said will begin to relocate employees this summer, ahead of the new school year.
House Agriculture ranking member Angie Craig (D-Minn.), in comments to reporters after the meeting, criticized as “bullshit” Vaden’s assertion that USDA expects two-thirds of its employees to relocate.
“The main question [was]: How did you come to the analysis that two-thirds of folks would be really willing to relocate? There doesn't seem to be any empirical evidence that that is even possible,” Craig said, noting that Vaden confirmed that two-thirds of USDA employees asked to relocate during President Donald Trump’s first term declined to do so.
A USDA spokesperson said that Vaden was "heartened to hear constructive feedback from Republicans and most Democrats.”
"Members who felt it necessary to negatively comment to the press did not feel equally compelled to actually engage at the roundtable," the spokesperson said in a statement.
House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) said Vaden told lawmakers that there is a “recruitment process” to replace employees who took early retirement and that USDA is seeking employee input on the reorganization.
“They're meeting with employee groups and sometimes unions, and that all is yet to be worked out, because they're doing their best to have that kind of input from the employees,” Thompson said.
Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) said Vaden demurred when several members asked about when USDA will tell employees whether and where they will be relocated.
Craig criticized the “complete love fest” GOP lawmakers showed Vaden during the meeting.
“I am still awaiting my Republican colleagues to grow a spine and push back,” she said.
Issues:Agriculture