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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown co-led a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) thinly veiled attempt to drive large numbers of employees to resign by forcing them to move across the country. The brief supports a motion for a preliminary injunction in American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, et al. v. Trump, et al., a case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Attorney General Brown and the coalition argue that USDA’s “reorganization” would not benefit the agency or the states. Instead, it would harm Maryland and other states who partner with USDA on essential programs to prevent wildfires, protect food safety and security, and administer food assistance to our most vulnerable residents.
In the brief, the coalition urges the Northern District of California to halt the USDA’s reckless reorganization plan to protect states from this imminent harm. Attorney General Brown and the coalition join the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, and many other labor organizations, nonprofits, and local governments, including Prince George’s County and the City of Baltimore, who challenge the proposed USDA reorganization.
“The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center is a Maryland treasure that strengthens and protects our food system and public health far beyond our state’s borders, and closing it would be reckless,” said Attorney General Brown. “My Office is co-leading this coalition to stop USDA’s shortsighted reorganization before it causes irreversible lasting harm.”
Maryland has long been home to the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), widely regarded as one of the most advanced and influential agricultural research facilities in the world and the centerpiece of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. Shuttering this lab would harm not just agriculture, but public health. Scientists at BARC are currently studying cyclospora, a foodborne parasite that can cause severe illness, including one of the worst cyclospora outbreaks on record in the United States. Every scientist on at least one ongoing cyclospora project at BARC has declined to move across the country and will instead be forced to resign from USDA, leaving the future of this research uncertain. Researchers at BARC and elsewhere across USDA are also responsible for producing information and data concerning agriculture, food production, conservation, pests, plant and animal health, and food safety that Maryland and other states rely on, and USDA’s ill-conceived reorganization would jeopardize much of this important work as well.
Maryland also relies on USDA Food and Nutrition Administration personnel for program administration, guidance, funding, oversight, and coordination. The reorganization threatens Maryland’s ability to efficiently administer critical nutrition-assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, child and school-based nutrition programs, and nutrition-related disaster assistance. The reorganization also targets the Forest Service, pushing out experienced personnel responsible for wildfire prevention and response, land management partnerships, and scientific expertise. Maryland and the other states rely on the Forest Service for crucial wildfire response capacity as well as foundational research that supports Maryland’s own land management and natural resources stewardship.
The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to dramatically slash protections and programs that states and people rely on, including food safety, environmental protection, natural disaster funding, and funding for victims of crime. In the case of USDA, Trump political appointees are hoping to cut much of USDA’s existing workforce, risking the loss of its most experienced employees and decades of institutional knowledge. One way they are attempting to force people out is through this drastic reorganization, which forces employees to choose between moving across the country despite family and personal obligations – and in many cases taking a significant pay cut – or losing their jobs. The coalition’s brief highlights the harms to public health and safety that would follow and urges the court to protect these programs and employees.
This brief was led by the attorneys general of Maryland, California, and Washington. Joining Attorney General Brown in filing the brief are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.
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