SAN FRANCISCO—In another legal win against President Donald Trump, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco banned Trump and his Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, from physically breaking up the Department of Agriculture and scattering pieces of it around the country, harming millions of Americans along with the 100,000 workers employed there.
Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have argued for “reprogramming” USDA money which Congress already approved for other uses, to shift the Forest Service headquarters out of D.C., consolidate farm research, and close or move dozens of other USDA offices. The Forest Service is part of USDA.
After describing the chaos that would ensue from Trump’s plans, Judge Chhabria issued a national injunction to stop the scheme. The judge declared Trump’s massive breakup “would cause immediate and irreparable harm” to USDA’s workers.
But buried deep in the ruling, Judge Chhabria also discussed how breaking up the Agriculture Department would harm the millions of people USDA serves, especially in its nutrition programs—food stamps (SNAP), school lunches, adult care, and for women, infants and children.
The feeding programs are one-quarter of USDA’s budget. They aid the most people, including 40% of U.S. infants, the judge pointed out. “USDA’s reorganization efforts risk disrupting programs on which many Americans depend,” the judge said.
Trump’s plan to split up the department and disperse its workers out to a variety of other entities and locales, would endanger the delivery of all those food services and more.
“Where an agency contemplates forced relocations of thousands of its employees—necessarily resulting in considerable attrition—the impact of that attrition on the agency’s ability to perform its functions seems likely to be an important consideration,” the judge drily wrote.
“An agency considering office closures and employee relocations like those at issue here at least ought to consider whether the key functions of each affected component will be impacted and to explain why or why not.” Trump didn’t do that, either, Judge Chhabria wrote.
The unions and workers replied that Congress specifically barred such “reprogramming” of money for physical office moves, unless the move affected ten workers at most and $1 million in spending at most. The ban is in the USDA money bill which runs through Dec. 11. Judge Chhabria agreed but also noted the ban would expire that day unless Congress renewed or extended it.
“Congress did not contemplate USDA using its appropriated funds to shut down offices or relocate employees. To the contrary, Congress was actively working to restrict the agency’s ability to do so,” the judge wrote on Oct. 13.
USDA workers, many of them represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees, a Machinists sector, would have to uproot their lives within weeks or months if they want to keep their jobs. The choice would be move or quit.
“If implemented, the planned reorganization will likely put thousands of USDA employees to the choice of relocating far from their current home—often to a different state—or losing their job,” the judge explained.
Trump already forced that choice on USDA’s Economic Research Service workers when he forced that agency to relocate to Kansas City. Carloads of them quit, taking expertise with them.
The unions told the judge an estimated 80% of the 1,200 workers at the Food and Nutrition Administration, which runs food stamps and the women’s, infants, and children’s (WIC) support program, would be forced to quit, for example.
Trump wants to uproot the entire department, but the judge said “no.”
The union leaders who sued—NFFE-Machinists President Randy Erwin, Government Employees (AFGE) President Everett Kelley, AFSCME President Patrick Moran, and Treasury Employees President Doreen Greenwald—cheered. So did non-profit groups which seek USDA grants.
The Dec.11 deadline also gives them time to lobby lawmakers to write Judge Chhabria’s breakup ban into federal funding law after the November election.
“Since this so-called realignment was announced, NFFE, our fellow federal unions, and partners across the country have fought tirelessly to stop the USDA from being dismantled,” said Erwin.
“Congress told USDA in plain language that it could not close offices and uproot its workforce without permission. USDA did it anyway,” AFGE’s President Kelley declared. “These forced moves were never about efficiency. They were about pushing experienced people out the door.” The judge’s decision “keeps them on the job.” He pledged to keep fighting in court against other Trump actions.
AFSCME President Moran said Trump’s breakup of USDA is not only “blatantly illegal,” but “threatens public benefits like SNAP, endangers public safety by hindering wildfire response, and hurts farmers at a time working families can least afford it.”
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