FIRST ON FOX: A Republican and a Democrat are banding together to break up the centralized power structure in Washington, D.C., with a new bill moving federal agencies to other parts of the country.
Reps. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, and Jared Golden, D-Maine, are introducing a bill Tuesday to relocate certain U.S. government offices elsewhere in the country’s 50 states, Fox News Digital was told.Â
Exceptions would be made for national security-focused agencies like the Department of Justice, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy and the State Department.
For other agencies, like the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Interior, for example, the legislation would block new and old leases as well as major renovation permits, forcing them to look outside the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for new space.
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It would then establish a “competitive bidding process” for other states to lease their land to the federal government, according to the bill text.
Hinson argued it would transfer such agencies and offices to states that rely on their services most.
“Moving federal agencies out of Washington and closer to the people most impacted will ensure that federal bureaucrats who have never left DC aren’t issuing out-of-touch mandates that disproportionately harm working families, small businesses, and our farmers who feed and fuel the world,” she told Fox News Digital.
Hinson added there was “no valid reason” for USDA to operate in Washington, D.C., when it could be in her home state of Iowa, for example.
Golden, also referencing industry in his home state of Maine, told Fox News Digital, “No one knows better than fishermen what it takes to make a living on the water, or the threat that new regulations from far away can pose not only to their livelihoods but to their entire community or region.”
“Redistributing federal agencies and jobs around the country would bring the government closer to the people, ensure regulators are embedded in the communities that thrive or struggle based on their rulings and bring good-paying jobs out of the beltway and into communities across the country,” he said.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who has introduced a counterpart bill in the Senate, said the legislation was aimed at “reining in the administrative state that has run unchecked at the taxpayer’s expense.”Â
It is not immediately clear what the effects would be on job levels in Washington, D.C., where the federal government is the largest employer. It is also unclear what the overall costs could be of transferring agencies.
However, the lawmakers argued that it would ultimately save taxpayer dollars by conducting necessary oversight over federal leases, at a time when some spaces are still sitting largely unused due to remote work policies left over from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bill would also direct the federal government to use funds from the sale of any federal land or building to offset relocation costs.
