The Department of Agriculture is beginning to reshuffle funds for its sweeping reorganization plan, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday, despite a requirement to consult first with congressional appropriators.
“My understanding is the reprogramming is underway,” Rollins told Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) at a Senate Appropriations hearing on the USDA’s budget request for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. “It has gone very smoothly and will continue to do so.”
Rollins’s exchange with Heinrich illustrated a flash point between lawmakers and the Trump administration as officials seek to close federal offices in Washington and move hundreds of employees to new offices in other parts of the country.
As the plan proceeds — officials say they expect to move staff this summer, ahead of the next school year — it’s testing Congress’s willingness to stand behind the law it passed last year limiting the administration’s ability to act unilaterally.
