be out of a job come the close of business on september 27th. the union representing the workers at usda today announced that they have won a few concessions from the agency for employees who have decided to accept this forced transfer. but at this point, the move would seem to be a done deal. except for the fact that there are two important data points worth keeping an eye on here. the first is that on monday, the usda inspector general released a report concluding that the agency didn t actually have this authority to pay for relocating the science departments without budgetary approval from congress, which they absolutely do not have and will not get. people like virginia congresswoman jennifer wexton have been waving the flag on this point, calling into question the legality of the move. but then there s also this from the white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney. you ve heard about drain the swamp. what you probably haven t heard
it. the supreme court didn t buy it. well, now a similar situation seems to be playing out at the u.s. agriculture department. for the past few weeks, we have been covering the way the agriculture department under president trump has been trying to decimate science at that agency. presumably because scientists at that agency keep producing work that has inconvenient scientific findings that this administration doesn t want to confront. scientists at usda were given a month to decide whether they would move halfway across the country for no good reason at all or else be fired. about two-thirds of the scientists chose door b. well, today, those employees started receiving their termination letters, telling them that they will officially be out of a job come the close of business on september 27th. the union representing the workers at usda today announced that they have won a few concessions from the agency for employees who have decided to accept this forced transfer.