How Not To Downsize

Members of Congress from rural states can't say the Agriculture Department has never done them any favors. USDA's ill-conceived, ill-executed and, ultimately, ill-fated plan to close hundreds of Farm Service Agency county offices has enabled all of these members to issue press releases crowing about how they stopped the idea in its tracks. (See here and here for just a couple of examples.) If you want to do something as politically charged as shut down federal offices in congressional districts across the country, this is a textbook case of how not to do it.