It’s not a bad idea to decentralize the federal government as a way to make telework pretty much impossible to walk back on, you get a more diverse and representative public service that’s closer to the population it should be working for.
There’s also advantages to the DC metro area being a “company town” in that it attracts interested public servants with particular skill sets. The DC metro area has a huge number of folks not from here, so it’s not like there’s a “DC mindset” at the individual level. And the feds have been pretty good on telework (fed contractors, not so much)
I wouldn’t say that it’s the same as having people from all over the place that keep on living in their community. Live a couple of years in the city and your mindset won’t be the same even if you’re from a rural area. Add to that the door it opens to give good jobs in regions that need them and centralization makes even less sense.
Also could be good to help struggling cities and provide jobs. Probably can’t have some national security department in Detroit in case those damn Canadians try to invade, but maybe the USDA or something could bring a lot of well paying jobs there or any rust belt city.
Could also save the government some money because cost of living is low enough that hiring a white collar worker in Detroit is way cheaper then in the DC metro.
The CDC has been held up as the example of what could be done. The organization that became the CDC started in Atlanta, but it shows you don’t need to be near Washington, DC to be important.
The idea is to move more research based organizations to lower cost cities since they don’t have to be in DC to be effective, the federal government could save on living expenses, and the agency could act as stimulus to the area.
It’s not a bad idea to decentralize the federal government as a way to make telework pretty much impossible to walk back on, you get a more diverse and representative public service that’s closer to the population it should be working for.
But I don’t think that’s Trump’s objective here…
There’s also advantages to the DC metro area being a “company town” in that it attracts interested public servants with particular skill sets. The DC metro area has a huge number of folks not from here, so it’s not like there’s a “DC mindset” at the individual level. And the feds have been pretty good on telework (fed contractors, not so much)
I wouldn’t say that it’s the same as having people from all over the place that keep on living in their community. Live a couple of years in the city and your mindset won’t be the same even if you’re from a rural area. Add to that the door it opens to give good jobs in regions that need them and centralization makes even less sense.
Also could be good to help struggling cities and provide jobs. Probably can’t have some national security department in Detroit in case those damn Canadians try to invade, but maybe the USDA or something could bring a lot of well paying jobs there or any rust belt city.
Could also save the government some money because cost of living is low enough that hiring a white collar worker in Detroit is way cheaper then in the DC metro.
At the same time it’s even better if they’re all paid the same wage as it puts pressure on the private sector to get up to speed.
The CDC has been held up as the example of what could be done. The organization that became the CDC started in Atlanta, but it shows you don’t need to be near Washington, DC to be important.
The idea is to move more research based organizations to lower cost cities since they don’t have to be in DC to be effective, the federal government could save on living expenses, and the agency could act as stimulus to the area.