Thread by @NBCNews

The Trump admin. announced in June that it would move two USDA research agencies from Washington, DC, to Kansas City within 3 months.

The sudden announcement led hundreds of employees to resign or retire early, leaving the two institutions gutted.
nbcnews.to/2LZeejK (1/7)

More than a dozen scientists and experts who are currently or were formerly employed by multiple federal agencies tell @NBCNews the effective dismantling of these two agencies is the most illustrative of the admin.’s intentions: to remove or neuter evidence-based research. (2/7)

Of the 547 employees in the two agencies, only 61 have made the move to Kansas City.

Despite the USDA’s insistence that they are hiring at a rapid clip, many remain skeptical that the two agencies will ever recover.

nbcnews.to/2LZeejK (3/7)

A USDA memo obtained by @NBCNews details that the departures will lead to the delay or even discontinuation of 56 reports or studies.

The departures are likely to have a detrimental impact on farming communities that depend on the information they provide, advocates say. (4/7)

The studies that will be stalled include examinations of the impact of the food stamp program on rural communities, the impact of the consolidation of dairy farming, the drivers of the opioid epidemic, a dozen reports on trade policy impacts on US agriculture, and more. (5/7)

A USDA spokesperson points to the agency’s cost-benefit analysis released in June, which stated the move would save the agency $300M over 15 years and allow it to reinvest those funds to “allow more funding for research of critical needs like rural prosperity...” (6/7)

But a review of USDA’s findings by economists from Agricultural and Applied Economics Assoc. found the move would cost taxpayers $83M-$182M because the analysis overstated the cost of keeping them in DC and did not account for loss of research and staffers. (7/7) #NBCNewsThreads