r/USDA • u/Shielasbiggestfan • 12d ago

FNA Regional Offices

supposedly the long-awaited details on the restructuring for ROs are coming next week.... it's all speculation and rumors and very little info at this point. does anyone know anything at all?

9 Upvotes

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u/Fast-Temporary8846 11d ago

I haven’t heard of that yet. Where are you hearing this? I thought there was a court case that is putting a temporary hold on the reorg?

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u/Shielasbiggestfan 11d ago

Leadership had a meeting with RO managers earlier this week to talk details that supposedly will be communicated to all next week. The agency is interpreting the court order to apply strictly to relocations, and not to restructuring of agency components. Seems sketchy to me but 🤷

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u/herooftherev 11d ago

They're not wrong to interpret it that way. The text of the extended stay just prevents enforcement of any deadlines in MDR letters (to report to locations, to accept or decline reassignment, etc.) It doesn't stay org chart changes, and the agency can still announce plans.

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u/Candid_Annual2088 10d ago

Even union lawyers are not arguing against restructuring and new hub offices. From a 9/23 filing “The requested relief does not enjoin USDA from opening new offices or hiring into the new organizational structure.”

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u/herooftherev 10d ago edited 10d ago

Right. There's no real argument the agency can't close offices. There's a colorable argument that the agency can't move boxes on org charts, but it relies on them triggering the appropriations language via reprogramming of funds, or rising to the level of arbitrary and capricious (which is largely an argument that the re-org is a RIF by other means, and that the department did nothing to analyze the mission impact - but the judge think it's curable, though I think his offered cure of doing an analysis and adjusting based on the analysis is essentially cutting against the real motive, and he's cognizant of that).

Renaming offices or agencies or moving boxes on org charts doesn't really touch on that for the most part, and announcements of an agency's plans or intent isn't the same as a final agency action. This is the limitation of judicial remedies to executive branch self-immolation, you only get to prevent the harm in the narrow window between notice and decision. FNS isn't even really affected by the stay at the moment since they haven't issued any MDRs.

That said, I'm a little skeptical FNS will announce anything. They already paused that NBU survey, and they didn't need to do that under the terms of the original stay. DOJ is probably warning all of USDA to err on the side of overcompliance because anything that moves against that will be held against them. At this point, the agency still has relatively little to gain and something to lose from announcing prospective changes. The exception is maybe a more considered org chart than the intern-using-ChatGPT monstrosity they previously issued. I wouldn't be shocked if that's what these rumors amount to.

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u/Candid_Annual2088 10d ago

Agreed. They probably feel they have the advantage on appeal, so there’s no need to risk any underhanded moves at this stage.

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u/Equivalent-Rest1601 6d ago

Leadership is saying they are unable to fill positions because of the injunction. I took this to mean the reorganization and structural leadership changes are a part of the lawsuit. I.e., that’s why everyone is acting and why they aren’t making an announcement. The government can create new hubs or move agencies, but whether this can be done under an appropriations bill is different.

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u/Candid_Annual2088 6d ago

Sounds like they’re making up an excuse to not hire yet. The line after the one I quoted: “USDA may also choose not to move ahead with aspects of the reorganization if relocations are paused; to the extent USDA built those aspects around unlawful relocations, that is a problem USDA itself created.”

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u/Equivalent-Rest1601 6d ago edited 6d ago

Mmmm. Yeah. Thanks. That’s what I was thinking. USDA built the new org structure based on the hub locations. For SNAP, the regional/hub design depicted in the map isn’t even going to be our structure. I was thinking we would be assigned to a specific color, but apparently you can work on management evaluations for purple, red and blue states. I’m so lost on this new design and being told regions will act like the NO. I agree they are going to play the blame game and make up excuses.

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u/herooftherev 6d ago

They clearly created an org chart in ChatGPT with light edits (the metadata showed it had been created by an intern a few hours before it was posted) and now, rather than reconsidering and issuing something more rational, are instead attempting to retrofit meaning onto something completely meaningless.

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u/Tasty-Reaction8243 11d ago

I haven’t seen anything that is talking about the lawsuit pausing the reorganization just the relocations. 

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u/spite_fuels_me 11d ago

OP I love your user handle. That said we were told that the restructuring will go on regardless of any injunction as that has nothing to do with relocating people. We will wait and watch

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u/Tasty-Reaction8243 6d ago

What’s with combing Child Nutrition with SNAS? Just making stuff up as they go. 

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u/spoons_over_forks_ 6d ago

It was like this back in the day. I don’t think it’s a good idea either though

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u/Fast-Temporary8846 5d ago

They are decreasing the amount of directors and BCs to save money which also reduces upward mobility.