Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tried to sell the Kansas City region as an attractive new home for employees of the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture at an “all-hands” meeting Thursday to brief those agencies’ employees. But some weren’t buying it.

Citing hundreds of millions in savings over a 15-year period, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue today announced the Kansas City region has been chosen as the new home for the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. But ERS will not be moved under the Office of Chief Economist, as previously proposed.

Facing relocation of their offices and jobs, employees of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture joined their USDA colleagues at the Economic Research Service by voting today to form a bargaining unit with the American Federation of Government Employees.

The Department of Agriculture has not made a compelling case for moving the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture outside of Washington, D.C., two ag scientists and a farmer told a House Agriculture subcommittee Wednesday.

House Democratic leaders look to finally push through on Monday a $19.1 billion disaster relief bill that a handful of conservative Republicans blocked from passing while most lawmakers were out of town for the 10-day Memorial Day recess.

Employees of USDA's Economic Research Service voted 138-4 for union representation even as their department continues to proceed with plans to move ERS and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture out of the nation's capital.

USDA has announced the finalists for the new homes of the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

USDA will keep 76 Economic Research Service employees in the Washington, D.C., area when it moves ERS outside the Beltway, the department said Tuesday.