Rooting Out the Deep State In American Agriculture

Originally published by the Washington Examiner

In July, Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans for the reorganization of the Agriculture Department and the relocation of over 40% of its Washington-based workforce to five distributed hubs across America — closer to home for our farmers.

Federal agency reorganizations are fairly standard in Washington following changes in presidential administrations, but the last part of Rollins’s announcement really got the swamp howling. Namely, the plan to reduce the Washington-based USDA staff presence from 4,600 strong down to 2,000 and to send functions to the hinterlands was an affront to the managerial class.

As a veteran of five different federal and state government agencies (Matt), the outcry came as no surprise. What did, however, was the boldness of the proposal and Rollins’s willingness to enact what political scientists have discussed for decades, namely, working to reconcile bureaucratic governance and democratic theory.

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