USDA to Close Five FSIS District Offices

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will close district offices in Lawrence, KS; Beltsville, MD; Minneapolis, MN, Albany, NY; and Madison, WS. The budgets cuts and consolidations, leaving 10 district offices open for business, are the FSIS contributions to planned USDA budget cuts totaling about $150 million, or about one percent of the giant farm and forest agency's $150 billion annual budget. FSIS says it is possible to consolidate the current 15 district offices into 10 because technology and work-share agreements are reducing the need for so many brick and mortar facilities. It wants to close the offices by the end of fiscal year 2013. Dr. Richard Raymond, former Under Secretary for Food Safety from 2005-08, said the timing for such a move is right. "I would have liked to have done this, but had no political pressure (like budget cuts or Presidential mandates) to do it. This gives (FSIS Administrator) Al Almanza and (current USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety) Dr. Elisabeth Hagen the ability to select and keep in position their top 10 District Managers. Everyone knows a couple that need to be relieved of their duties."...more

Let's see, 2005-2008 was during the Bush Administration, yet Dr. Raymond felt no "political pressure" to cut the budget.  How about just implementing good policy?  I felt no "political pressure" at Interior under Reagan, yet still proposed cutting the BLM budget.  So much so it was even opposed by OMB, which is unheard of in DC.  Now here's an Obama appointee doing what a Bush appointee didn't have the guts to do.  This explains a lot about the importance of these type of appointments and the mistakes made by the Republican establishment.