If the GOP retakes the White House, as is pretty much expected in 2024, you will be sure to see some rather significant changes. For Florida Governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis one such change would include moving the Department of Agriculture out of DC altogether.
As you likely know, just about every federal agency in the nation is housed in Washington, DC. And while that somewhat makes sense, as it is the seat of our nation, other places would make much more sense.
Or at least this is how most conservatives see things.
For the Department of Agriculture, for example, wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be located in a place where it actually comes into contact with its job tasks? You know, a place where farming and rural living is a reality and commonplace?
DeSantis would agree. And that’s precisely why he’s announced that should he win the White House come 2024, he’ll move the Department of Agriculture out of DC and to a state where farming and agriculture are home.
As he posted on his X account, “When I’m president, Iowa will have first dibs on the Department of Agriculture.”
When I’m President, Iowa will have first dibs on the Department of Agriculture.
An agency like the USDA should be staffed by Americans who understand agriculture and farming, not pointy-headed bureaucrats imposing an agenda. pic.twitter.com/xc3A0RuIM9
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 14, 2023
He continued, adding that “an agency like the USDA should be staffed by Americans who understand agriculture and farming, not pointy-headed bureaucrats imposing an agenda.”
In the video he added to this post, he noted that agencies such as the USDA need to be “more reflective” of the issues they have been tasked with serving. And this means many of them might need to be moved out of the Beltway to more real-life places where they can do the most good.
Now, in the case of Iowa possibly getting the USDA, I imagine this could also be a way of trying to sway the first to caucus state in DeSantis’s favor.
However, he’s also not wrong on the idea that we need to have “power outside of Washington.”
Hopefully, whoever takes the White House, DeSantis, or someone else, they will make similar moves.
