A federal judge has halted the U.S. Department of Agriculture's plan to force roughly 2,600 employees out of the Washington region, delivering a win to federal workers in D.C., Maryland and Virginia who faced orders to pack up and move across the country or lose their jobs. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria issued an indefinite stay on Tuesday blocking relocations outside local commuting areas for employees spread across eight USDA sub-agencies while a lawsuit over the reorganization plays out.
The ruling, reported by WTOP News, extends a temporary administrative stay that had already been in place since September, according to Government Executive. Chhabria found that USDA is likely violating spending restrictions tucked into the fiscal year 2026 agriculture appropriations law, which bars the agency from spending money to reorganize or relocate offices without sign-off from the House and Senate appropriations committees, as reported by The Washington Sun. Congress added that approval requirement specifically to tighten its grip on executive branch restructurings.
What the Blocked Plan Would Have Done
The reorganization USDA had been pursuing was sweeping. It called for moving the U.S. Forest Service's headquarters from Washington, D.C., all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah, while closing all nine of the agency's regional offices and shuttering 23 research locations spread across 15 states, according to a complaint filed by AFGE. The Forest Service manages the nation's forests and leads federal wildfire response, making its D.C. footprint far from a minor bureaucratic detail.
Closer to home, the plan targeted Maryland's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, which has operated since 1910, for complete closure. The proposal drew more than 2,000 public comments during a 2025 review period, with 92% of respondents opposing it, per the IPM Newsroom. Scientists at Beltsville work on food safety, pathogens and crop security, the kind of research that doesn't easily pick up and move across state lines.
Food Assistance Agency Also Caught in the Shakeup
The reorganization also swept up USDA's food assistance arm. The Food and Nutrition Service was rebranded as the Food and Nutrition Administration, with plans to close five of its seven regional offices and relocate up to 870 of roughly 1,200 staff to new hubs in Texas, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina and Colorado, the Washington Sun reported. That agency oversees major federal nutrition programs including SNAP and WIC, meaning disruptions there ripple well beyond the federal workforce itself.
Internal 2025 USDA workforce projections anticipated heavy attrition if the geographic reassignments went forward, and union surveys found that roughly 80% of affected workers intended to reject relocation orders rather than move, according to the Washington Sun. Refusing a geographic reassignment typically results in involuntary separation from federal service, meaning the plan risked a mass exodus of institutional expertise rather than a simple office shuffle.
Unions and Local Governments Sued Over the Plan
The legal fight began on September 8, when a coalition of four major federal labor unions — AFGE, AFSCME, NFFE and NTEU — filed suit alongside local governments including Santa Clara County and the City and County of San Francisco, according to AFGE. The plaintiffs argued the forced moves would disrupt federal public services as well as local government operations that rely on them.
The case landed before Judge Chhabria after U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled on September 2 that USDA-specific claims were too distinct to remain folded into a broader multi-agency lawsuit challenging administration-wide executive orders on federal workforce restructuring, per Feedstuffs. That procedural split gave USDA's relocation plan its own dedicated day in court.
What Stays, What's Still Allowed
Chhabria's injunction isn't a total freeze on USDA moving people around. The order explicitly permits reassignments within the Washington National Capital Region, meaning the agency can still shift staff between facilities in D.C., Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland, and Northern Virginia, according to the NARFE blog. The court drew a clear line between those routine, local office adjustments and the long-distance geographic reassignments the lawsuit targets.
The stay isn't permanent, and the clock is already running on a key legislative deadline. The statutory spending restrictions that underpin Chhabria's ruling are set to expire on December 11, 2026, opening a window for Congress to decide whether to extend or drop those protections in the next federal funding bill, the Washington Sun reported. Chhabria noted that USDA could use the upcoming budget process to try to convince lawmakers the reorganization has merit — meaning the fight over these jobs may simply shift from the courtroom to Capitol Hill before the year is out.
