Georgia failed to make the shortlist in the headquarters search for two research agencies that the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to move out of Washington.
In a press release Friday, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Indiana (multiple sites), the Greater Kansas City area and the Research Triangle region in North Carolina are the department’s top three candidates for the headquarters of the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
St. Louis and Madison, Wis., are listed as alternates.
The failure of Georgia’s two candidates — Athens and Griffin — to make the cut is a blow to a state some observers believed had an inside track to win the two agencies and more than 600 jobs. Perdue is a former governor of Georgia and a former state lawmaker.
“While we would have loved the opportunity to be on USDA’s shortlist, we look forward to connecting with the department and the site selection consultants to hear what we could have done to stay in the process,” said Bert Brantley, the chief operating officer of the state’s Department of Economic Development. “We always want to use these types of projects to get better for the next one that comes along.”
The department said its priorities included low costs of living and operations, workforce quality and access to an international airport.
“Relocation will help ensure USDA is the most effective, most efficient, and most customer-focused agency in the federal government, allowing us to be closer to our stakeholders and move our resources closer to our customers,” Perdue said in the release. “Our commitment to the public and our employees is to continue to be transparent as we proceed with our analysis.”
Though many of Georgia’s GOP congressional members supported the state’s bid, U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, tried to block money for the move in spending bills. Bishop is the chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee with power over USDA funding.
Bishop said Perdue hadn’t produced cost estimates justifying the move, and the congressman raised concerns about a relocation harming morale and the agencies’ objectivity.
The ERS and NIFA conduct and fund agricultural research. Many scientific groups also have panned Perdue’s plans to relocate the agencies.
On Friday, Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, applauded the inclusion of the Kansas City area on the department’s shortlist.
“There’s no better place for ERS and NIFA to relocate than Kansas City,” Roberts said in a news release.
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