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Trump Stings The Bees!

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  • #16
    Here's a little less Dumbsterized version of this from Market to Market...

    Unlike the false narrative of the OP that researchers were given only 1 month notice, they actually have over 2 months, and their decision isn't "final" until they do or do not show up for work September 30.



    KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Department of Agriculture says fewer than 40% of the researchers whose jobs are being transferred from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City will make the move to the Midwest.

    The Kansas City Star reports that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced in June that the USDA would move more than 550 jobs in two research agencies to Kansas City. A USDA spokesperson told The Star Tuesday that 145 workers will follow their jobs to Kansas City, while 250 will leave the agency, meaning about 37% accepted the transfers.

    The USDA says the figures may fluctuate. Employees can change their decision until they are expected to report to Kansas City on Sept. 30.

    Members of the Kansas and Missouri congressional delegations and the states' governors praised the USDA's move when it was announced, saying the agencies are a good fit for the region. But critics argued that moving them will make it harder for federal policymakers to get objective research that might raise questions about President Donald Trump's policies.

    It's not yet clear whether the researchers will work in Kansas or Missouri. Economic development officials from both states worked to lure the jobs and cities in both states are working to land the USDA offices.

    Perdue said that moving most employees out of Washington would bring the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture closer to farmers and agribusinesses they serve. He also said the USDA would save about $20 million a year on rent and other employee costs, freeing up extra dollars for research.

    Critics said the research agencies have lost veteran employees and been unable to fill vacancies since the USDA announced last year it was considering moving their headquarters.

    The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents workers at the two research agencies, opposed the plan. Employees at both recently unionized.

    The Economic Research Service examines a wide range of issues, including the rural economy, international trade, food safety and programs that provide food assistance to poor Americans. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture provides grants for agricultural research.


    Saving $20 million a year "in rent and other employee costs" will supposedly make more money available for research.

    In a way "Only 37 percent are moving" is kinda like all those people who said "If Trump is elected, I'm moving to Canada". We'll see if the move actually happens, and if some of the "I'm not moving" employees change their minds.

    Also, I wonder how much of this is a result (or related to) the fact that these agencies just unionized.
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

    Comment


    • #17
      Originally posted by JimL View Post
      Policies like effectively shutting down the USDA. As I said in the OP, Trump decided without notice to move the USDA from Washington DC to Kansas City, giving the scientist's and others 1 month to either uproot themselves and their families, pack up and move to Kansas City or lose their jobs. Ya know, he doesn't want science to interfere with his plans, like rewarding his big Corporate donors.
      Trump didn't have very many big corporate donors, unlike Hillary. And those few he did have wouldn't benefit by such a move.

      I'm always still in trouble again

      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

      Comment


      • #18
        Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
        Policies like what?
        A plan to move Agriculture Department researchers out of Washington has thrown two small but influential science agencies into upheaval. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) have quit in unusually large numbers since August, when Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced he would relocate the offices.

        ERS leadership has been conducting final site visits this week of candidate locations, and an “announcement Friday is very likely,” said Peter Winch, an organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents ERS workers.

        USDA declined to say when it will announce the new location for the agencies. “We don’t undertake these relocations lightly, and we are doing it to improve performance and the services these agencies provide,” Perdue told The Washington Post in a statement.


        Perdue presented his idea as a money-saving plan that will move scientists closer to “stakeholders” and “customers” such as farmers. ERS is a statistical agency that provides research for lawmakers; NIFA funds hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural research each year. Each office employs between 200 and 250 people, based on employee estimates. During the Obama administration, NIFA had about 400 workers and ERS had 300.

        Former Agriculture Department officials, members of Congress and leaders in the agricultural community have warned that the relocation will weaken the agencies and reduce their influence.

        The plan faces several obstacles. The USDA’s inspector general is investigating whether Perdue has the legal authority to relocate the agencies. The House Appropriations Committee’s draft bill of agricultural appropriations for fiscal year 2020, released Wednesday, prohibits the department from using funds for relocations outside the capital area.


        A USDA document known as the “stay-go” list, acquired by The Washington Post, describes 76 positions at ERS that would remain in Washington. All other employees would be assigned to the new site, though the document mentions “planned attrition.” The USDA declined to explain this phrase, and a USDA spokesman said in March that the department has “no assumptions at all about attrition.”

        "Morale is pretty poor,” said an ERS economist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The economist recently calculated resignation rates at the agency: ERS averaged about one non-retirement departure per month during fiscal years 2016 through 2018. Since October, that rate has doubled, the employee said. On a single day at the end of April, six people quit ERS.

        Economist Brian Stacy left ERS in February for a job at the World Bank. Stacy, an economist who studied the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, popularly known as food stamps, wrote in his resignation letter that moving out of the the D.C. area for work would be “extraordinarily difficult for my family.”


        The recent political pressure on ERS “seemed to fit a pattern,” Stacy told The Post, citing President Trump’s 2019 budget request that would have cut the agency’s funding by half. “Right after that, along came the relocation and this reorganization . . . I couldn’t help in the back of my mind to think that we were somehow being singled out.”

        Trump’s budget for 2020 would also slash funds for ERS research, particularly in nutrition and rural health. ERS is part of the Research, Education and Economics division, which is the USDA’s science arm and is overseen by a chief scientist. Perdue has said he would like to move ERS into the office of the chief economist, a political branch of the Agriculture Department.

        More than 130 sites across the country sent proposals to USDA to host the agencies. Candidate sites were evaluated based on distance from the capital and other criteria, such as whether they have direct daily flights to the D.C. area.


        In March, Perdue announced 68 “middle list” candidates. On May 3, he said that Kansas City, the Research Triangle in North Carolina, and the state of Indiana were the final contenders, with St. Louis and Madison, Wis. as alternates.

        Scientific and agricultural organizations, including the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the American Statistical Association, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, criticized the decision to move the two organizations hundreds of miles.

        Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) expressed disappointment that none of the finalist locations were within the National Capital Region, where the USDA already owns office buildings. A more distant relocation “will disrupt the important work carried out by the ERS and NIFA and undermine morale,” Hoyer said in a statement.


        On May 9, employees at ERS voted 138 to 4 to unionize. Workers at NIFA will hold a vote in June.

        "We will, frankly, be wanting to delay this move,” said Winch of the AFGE. Workers were told they would be given until the end of September to move to the new city, he said. “We would like a lot more leeway than that,” Winch said.

        Winch said the union is entitled to see a cost-benefit analysis for the move, which USDA has said it will produce but has not released. If relocation expenses exceed $3 million, then USDA would be required to involve the General Services Administration, the agency that manages federal offices, Winch said.

        “GSA is currently assisting USDA in identifying space for its NIFA and ERS offices,” said Pamela D. Pennington, a GSA spokeswoman. “GSA personnel have recently accompanied USDA on site visits.”
        WaPo
        “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
        “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
        “not all there” - you know who you are

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        • #19
          A government employee having to move because of their job? Pretty much business as usual. Heck, every single congressman and had to move to DC when they were elected. Every person in the military has to move around the world every few years. As an Army brat, I went to 12 different schools all around the world growing up. I would think that for anyone moving from DC to Kansas City, it would be like getting a huge raise. They will be getting the same pay, but their cost of living will have dropped by probably half in just housing costs alone.

          Comment


          • #20
            Plus, Kansas City is a much nicer place to live than Washington DC.
            Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
            But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
            Than a fool in the eyes of God


            From "Fools Gold" by Petra

            Comment


            • #21
              Trump must be the most hugest greatest President ever, to personally do all this.

              He not only hob-nobs with assorted Russians and North Koreans on a regular basis, attends his KKK chapter meetings, plays endless rounds of golf, posts on Twitter, holds rallies to boost the white supremacists who form his voter base (millions of them!), harasses beautiful women, searches for suitably shady and disreputable people to nominate to the Supreme Court, builds cages to keep poor refugee children in - all that and much more - but he somehow finds time to hatch and personally implement an evil plan to wipe out the bees! What a guy! What a broad and yet focussed range of evil machinations!
              ...>>> Witty remark or snarky quote of another poster goes here <<<...

              Comment


              • #22
                Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
                WaPo
                From that, you join in with the drama queens and extrapolate something sinister.
                The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                  A government employee having to move because of their job? Pretty much business as usual. Heck, every single congressman and had to move to DC when they were elected. Every person in the military has to move around the world every few years. As an Army brat, I went to 12 different schools all around the world growing up. I would think that for anyone moving from DC to Kansas City, it would be like getting a huge raise. They will be getting the same pay, but their cost of living will have dropped by probably half in just housing costs alone.
                  But the lobbyists will have to split their time between DC and KC!
                  The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                    But the lobbyists will have to split their time between DC and KC!
                    But on the plus side, they can visit Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City for some of the best barbecue in the world.
                    Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
                    But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
                    Than a fool in the eyes of God


                    From "Fools Gold" by Petra

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Originally posted by Mountain Man View Post
                      But on the plus side, they can visit Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City for some of the best barbecue in the world.
                      One of the things that really amazed me when Mrs CP and I visited the big Boeing factory was that the project engineers had cubicles down on the assembly floor in very close proximity to where the jets were actually being assembled. They weren't hunkered down in some fancy office in another state, or downtown, or even in a separate building -- they were right there for easy access if somebody had a problem, they could literally walk for a few minutes and see what the problem is first hand.

                      I kinda like the idea of 'fielding' people closer to their work instead of some expensive building in DC.
                      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        it's not like the USDA doesn't have field service offices all across the country anyway.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Originally posted by MaxVel View Post
                          Trump must be the most hugest greatest President ever, to personally do all this.

                          He not only hob-nobs with assorted Russians and North Koreans on a regular basis, attends his KKK chapter meetings, plays endless rounds of golf, posts on Twitter, holds rallies to boost the white supremacists who form his voter base (millions of them!), harasses beautiful women, searches for suitably shady and disreputable people to nominate to the Supreme Court, builds cages to keep poor refugee children in - all that and much more - but he somehow finds time to hatch and personally implement an evil plan to wipe out the bees! What a guy! What a broad and yet focussed range of evil machinations!
                          Except for the first sentence, you're spot on, Max.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                            But the lobbyists will have to split their time between DC and KC!
                            Wrong, all they need is Trump. Btw, have you noticed all the lobbyist he is appointing to administrative positions? Clean the swamp!

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Originally posted by JimL View Post
                              Except for the first sentence, you're spot on, Max.
                              ...>>> Witty remark or snarky quote of another poster goes here <<<...

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Originally posted by JimL View Post
                                Wrong, all they need is Trump. Btw, have you noticed all the lobbyist he is appointing to administrative positions? Clean the swamp!
                                I have noticed a lot of things Trump does that bother me, Jimmy - so I don't have to make stuff up or resort to extreme exaggeration like you do.
                                The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                                Comment

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