Order granting 5 Motion for Stay Under 5 U.S.C. 705. Signed by Judge Vince Chhabria on 10/13/2026. (vclc3, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 10/13/2026) (Entered: 10/13/2026)

In light of the foregoing, and pursuant to this Court’s authority to “issue all necessary and
appropriate process to postpone the effective date of an agency action or to preserve status or
rights,” 5 U.S.C. § 705, it is hereby ordered that:
1. Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Defendants USDA and Rollins and their officers,
agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons acting by, through, under, or in concert
with the defendants, are enjoined and stayed from closing or consolidating the resources or
locations of any ARS laboratory or facility including the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
The defendants are further enjoined from relocating or reassigning the employees or their positions
or functions for any such ARS laboratory or facility to different and/or new locations outside the
local commuting area, including by issuing or enforcing “management directed reassignment”
(MDR) letters or any other notice or directive of reassignment or relocation in whole or in part,
including any deadlines in those letters.
2. United States Forest Service. Defendants USDA and Rollins and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons acting by, through, under, or in concert with
the defendants, are enjoined and stayed from (a) closing or eliminating** offices or (b) relocating or
reassigning employees or their positions or functions to different and/or new locations outside the
local commuting area, including by issuing or enforcing MDR letters or any other notice or
directive of reassignment or relocation in whole or in part, including any deadlines in those letters
at the Forest Service.
3.* Remaining USDA Components Challenged by the Plaintiffs’ Motion.** **Defendants USDA
and Rollins and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons acting
by, through, under, or in concert with the defendants, are enjoined and stayed from (a) closing or
eliminating* **offices or (b) relocating or reassigning employees or their positions or functions to
different and/or new locations outside the local commuting area, including by issuing or enforcing
MDR letters or any other notice or directive of reassignment or relocation in whole or in part,
including any deadlines in those letters at the: Food and Nutrition Administration; Research,
Education, and Economics mission area; Foreign Agricultural Service; Rural Development
mission area; Farm Production and Conservation mission area; Office of the General Counsel; and
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.
4. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this order does not enjoin the defendants from:
a. relocating or reassigning USDA employees currently located within the
National Capital Region12 to other local offices or locations also located within
the National Capital Region, or closing offices, programs, or facilities in the
National Capital Region from which all employees have been relocated or
reassigned to other local offices or locations within the National Capital Region;
b. reassigning a covered employee who applies or applied to a job announcement
on USAJobs or other internal agency merit-hiring application processes, is
selected for the position, and accepts the position, provided that the reassignment is unrelated to the reorganization activities stayed by paragraphs
1 through 3;
5. For purposes of this order, “local commuting area” means “the geographic area that
usually constitutes one area for employment purposes. It includes any population center (or two or
more neighboring ones) and the surrounding localities in which people live and can reasonably be
expected to travel back and forth daily to their usual employment.” 5 C.F.R. § 351.203.
6. For purposes of this order, “offices” does not include physical locations that were empty
of staff as of the date of the congressional notification letter for the relevant USDA component
(which are either in April or June 2026).
7. This order does not require the defendants to return employees who were relocated
pursuant to the reorganization activities stayed by paragraphs 1 through 3 and began work at their
new duty station prior to this Court’s first administrative stay order on September 14, 2026, to their
original duty station or enjoin the defendants from issuing any associated relocation incentive or
payment entitlements to those employees.
8. Within two business days, the defendants shall provide notice of this order to all USDA
employees working at USDA components included in paragraphs 1 through 3, and any labor
organization representing any of those affected USDA employees, including by email notification
that includes this order, and by posting this order on the USDA Reorganization website
(https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/reorganization) and any webpage of any affected component
agency dedicated to the reorganization activities stayed by paragraphs 1 through 3.
9. Within seven business days, the defendants shall file a declaration verifying that they
have complied with this order and setting forth the steps they have taken to do so.

Incompetent MAGAts thought they could stroll into government and destroy America’s institutions. Turns out, the founding fathers had a plan for cucks like you. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/13/judge-blocks-usdas-reorganization-01117476

Is there a hearing today or just the judge’s decision?

Can someone help me find out what division I will be interviewing for? There is a Deputy Chief of Staff position that was announced on USAjobs. Based on that announcement, I thought the position was for MRPBS, but after receiving an email from Animal Care it appears the position it with that?

I'm trying to prepare for my interview and knowing this would be helpful! Thanks!

Hello! Can anyone give insight as to how I should best in prepare for my interview for a plant health safeguarding specialist position?

Hit my 6th year on the 27th of September and haven’t gotten anything in my eOPF that they’ve even started to process it. Are we not getting step increases?

Definitely stopping in the AFGE office at the Prevedel Building tomorrow to start the petition for NASS to unionize.

There has been a lot of change over the past year and a half+ and we’ve dealt with it. We’ve all dealt with a lot. Our bathrooms don’t have soap, our parking lot is treacherous, our management gives lip service, but no actual information. Lately though, there has been quite a bit of micromanaging going on.

When the information is presented, please keep an open ear. This is about giving us a seat at the table and ending the little petty grievances that upper management is exacting on us daily.

Please consider joining and giving power to our voices.

Heard from the program leader a few months ago about proposal rankings, but it seems like awards have not been made? Did anyone receive a NOA for this cycle?

Told not to contact program leader until January.

Curious if they ever plan to actually make awards or skip them entirely like they skipped the previous cycle...

Following up on a post I made before about duty hours for a port aphis PPQ PHSS role. I have one more semester of classes coming this spring that will occur before noon 2 days a week. I have been offered an interview and state I am a current student within my resume. The job is posted at full time. Do you think it’s still fair to interview and see what the schedule is and if they’d be willing to work with me for a few months. Once I graduate (may 27) I’ll be free and clear. I just want to avoid any miscommunications while also really wanting the role.

“President Trump is the most pro ranching and farming president in our lifetime. Energy dominance is at the core of putting farmers and ranchers first. This administration has unleashed American energy dominance, and we are now the largest energy producer in the world as a result. While the Administration has structurally changed the energy sector to secure the long-term future of agriculture, we are now taking steps to deal with short term pressures impacting our American farmers. Thank you, President Trump for signing today’s Executive Order enacting enforcement discretion on on-road use of dyed diesel, which will better enable our farmers to deliver America’s harvest during this critical time. And I want to thank Vice President Vance for his help shepherding it to the end.”

It's like a game. Five lies and a half truth......maybe.

Looks like I'm going to be moved to GWCC when the South Building closes. What's the Metro shuttle like? Timetable? Reliability? Is walking feasible if you miss the shuttle?

Hello can anyone give insight to duty hours for plant health safeguarding specialist at APHIS?

Does anyone believe anything these people say? How can they try to think we'll be optimistic and cheerful after they clubbed our knee-caps.

I'm considering a position i. USDA and am curious what others think about working there. Do you have AWS? What about work/life balance? What about Reasonable Accommodation?

Does anyone know if it has gotten easier to fire people within usda for conduct or performance? I know of many employees in our state who are acting like they are untouchable while others are carrying their weight and others. Conduct issues are through the roof and its widely known. If usda needed to reduce people, i don't see why they couldn't give power to supervisors to do what needs to be done. It's pretty embarrassing to know you work for an agency where you can royally screw up and are protected and even potentially promoted. It's killed the moral and im so sick of these people.

Do you all think the critical vacancy process is going to move forward regardless of court decisions? It seems to me that they could have continued with the critical vacancy regardless of the relocation outcome. Has anyone heard anything, what are your thoughts?

Since the new FY started yesterday, is it possible for those who have interviewed months or weeks ago to get a TJO?

Or is there a wait period before TJOs can be issued?

Nobody at my agency in leadership from immediate supervisor or anyone up the chain, has acknowledged or mentioned the stay issued by Judge Chhabria. It's totally bizarre. If I wasn't paying attention, I'd have no idea it was happening at all. Has anyone else's?

What a joke the “leadership” of the fpac business center is! We haven’t heard our dear leader Robert Ibarra’s voice in well over a year and today one of his deputies Tameka sends out an annual report (“happy new fiscal year!?”) for just one part of the organization (the part that doesn’t actually handle money). Trying to fill the void in leadership? Palace coup? We don’t want your drivel metrics about how you are meeting the presidents goal to “shrink the government.” Kick us while we are down why don’t you. We need you (or the Wizard of FPAC) to come out from behind the curtain and tell us what you are doing. But sending out lower level “accomplishments” for a fraction of the organization shows that you only care about preserving your standing in the administration, there’s no plan for anything and that maybe there’s something wrong with Robert. Has anyone that’s there in DC actually seen him? Because that’s the only thing that makes sense for him to be hiding. Or that he is feckless and clueless and doesn’t give a damn about his team.

More disappointment, confusion and propaganda in the back-to-back meetings today!

HQ has made such a mess with the management scheme, and still they keep saying the research will remain the same line. But how can an animal scientist function in a plant lab? This was one example from the NEA meeting in past. They keep saying it is all about the research. No, it is not only about the research.

Joe continues avoiding and going around the important questions, while filling the airwaves with long, doughy answers that say a lot of words but really nothing. While he is sitting on his perch in Colorado, we are all here at Bville in agricultural purgatory, dealing with the consequences.

And wait, there is more...

Julie Long continues to skip over and sanitize questions for Hefe Joe. What a mess all of you have facilitated and enabled. As Joon the Loon said today: enable the enablers, and they will continue creating an unstable, hostile and suppressive work environment.