Undated (RI) — Governor Kim Reynolds and Iowa’s congressional delegation are calling on US Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins to relocate USDA research projects to central Iowa. Iowa was not included in the plan released in July that would shift most USDA employees out of the Washington, D.C. metro to cities in five other states. Senator Chuck Grassley says Ames is a prime location.
Secretary Rollins plans to start shifting functions at the Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, to other sites and permanently close the facility in a few years.
Four units of the Agricultural Research Center are already located in Ames, including its National Animal Disease Center. Grassley says Iowa State University works closely with those facilities, and USDA researchers use ISU’s high-performance computing services.
Grassley, the governor, Senator Ernst, and all four Iowans who serve in the US House signed onto a letter to the ag secretary. It cites Iowa’s low cost of living for employees who might move from the nation’s capital to Iowa as well as the real-world experience USDA research would find in Iowa’s fields.
KIWA Staff Photo
