Agricultural research service? National Programs no more; Area offices no more?
I heard from a colleague in ARS that the last organizational chart had the office of national programs as part of the operations, as well as the Area Offices. Both of them are NOT in the recently shared organizational chart; along with that is that the four major program areas led by the office of national programs from Beltsville in the George Washington Carver Center? Well those national program areas now go under the Area Office directors (now called Deputy Administrators) for broad areas that they have no expertise on. One example: Peoria and the AD and associate AD for that area are now the leaders of all the NRSAS efforts; see: https://www.ars.usda.gov/natural-resources-and-sustainable-agricultural-systems/ and these are now to be led by Rosalyn and Jay? SYs and RLs and NPLs who never were in leadership of or managed NRSAS teams?
Rosalyn and Jay are smart and competent, but they do NOT know the NRSAS portfolio. This will be at best a long drawn out learning exercise, but at worst, one more example of how ARS is failing