Hawley, Blackburn Propose to Move Federal Agencies out of the Swamp

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced legislation Wednesday to move federal agencies out of the Washington, DC, swamp and to economically distressed areas of the country.

Hawley and Blackburn introduced the Helping Infrastructure Restore the Economy (HIRE) Act, which would move agencies out of the D.C. area and to regions of the American heartland.

Hawley, an outspoken supporter of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decision to move two subagencies to the Kansas City, Missouri, area, says the move will save taxpayer dollars and help remind federal bureaucrats that they serve the American people.

Hawley said:

Every year Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars fund federal agencies that are mainly located in the D.C. bubble. That’s a big part of the problem with Washington: They’re too removed from the rest of America. The HIRE Act will move policymakers directly into the communities they serve, creating thousands of jobs for local communities and saving taxpayers billions of dollars along the way.

Americans across the nation spend billions in taxpayer dollars, funding agencies in downtown Washington, DC. Hawley and Blackburn’s bill would help save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

One study found that moving agencies in the Agriculture Department will save $300 million over 15 years. The report also found that moving agencies outside D.C. could save money by decreasing employee attrition.

The bill could also expand Americans’ access to federal jobs. Although Americans across the nation spend billions in taxes, most of the federal positions are in Virginia, Maryland, or D.C. Moving agencies to economically depressed areas could improve regional economies.

For instance, moving the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Center to Clarksburg, West Virginia, provided the local economy jobs.

Blackburn said in a statement Wednesday:

Moving agencies outside of Washington, DC, both boosts local economies and lowers costs — that’s a winning combination. This legislation would enable Americans across the country to have greater access to good jobs. Tennesseans would greatly benefit from having portions of the Department of Education in the Volunteer State. It is my hope that the HIRE Act will quickly pass the Senate.

The HIRE Act would move the headquarters of the Agriculture Department to Missouri and the Education Department to Tennessee, as well as eight other agencies to economically depressed areas in separate states, including: