USDA shut down an office complex in Kansas City, Mo., due to a potential COVID-19 infection contracted during a Farm Service Agency conference held there from March 10 to March 13.

The Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture will be moving into new office space in downtown Kansas City, Mo., Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday.

Faced with criticism about delays in research reports and distribution of grant funding, a top USDA official defended the department’s decision to relocate the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture to the Kansas City region at a congressional hearing Thursday.

The Agriculture Department has the legal authority to move the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture to Kansas City, but USDA may not have the authority to spend money on the relocation, USDA's inspector general says.

USDA is working to ensure the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture continue to perform “mission-critical work” during the transition of the two agencies to the Kansas City region, a top-ranking science official told the Senate Agriculture Committee today.