Government Executive has a good piece on the USDA announcement of a reorganization of the economics people, including a move of ERS outside of the DC area. I've no expertise in this area, but when has that kept me from commenting?
My first reaction to the move was negative, but then I read the rationale in the piece: the difficulty of getting professionals to move to the high-cost DC area. That makes sense to me. I remember the problems we had back in the 80's and 90's in getting people to move--one reason why we ended up hiring program technicians from county offices under SCOAP. Single women had less difficulty moving than did married men with families, the usual targets for hiring as program people in DC.
My third reaction is triggered by the discussion in the piece. Distance in bureaucracy is critical. The problem in attracting professionals to DC is not limited to ERS or USDA. Apparently the locality pay differential doesn't work at these levels, and also USDA hasn't gotten the authority to offer bigger money for such positions (like doctors in HHS/NIH or attorneys elsewhere get).
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