Judge blocks Forest Service headquarters move to Salt Lake City

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the planned move of the U.S. Forest Service headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, along with specified office closures and employee relocations at parts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The order, issued Oct. 13, applies while a lawsuit over the USDA reorganization proceeds; it is not a final decision on the case or a permanent ruling on the headquarters’ location.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria granted preliminary relief under Section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act. For the Forest Service, the order bars closing or eliminating offices and moving or reassigning employees, positions or functions outside local commuting areas. It also bars issuing or enforcing management-directed reassignment letters and their deadlines for those covered moves.

Restrictions have exceptions

The order applies specified restrictions to eight USDA component organizations named in the case, including the Forest Service. It separately protects Agricultural Research Service laboratories and facilities, including the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, from specified closures, consolidations and transfers of staff or functions outside local commuting areas.

The restrictions are not a blanket halt to every USDA reorganization action. The order allows certain qualifying moves and office actions within the National Capital Region, as well as unrelated merit-based job changes accepted by employees selected for those positions. It also does not require employees who began work at new duty stations before the court’s first administrative stay on Sept. 14 to return.

The court’s account describes more than 6,000 Forest Service employees as having received letters saying they were being considered for mandatory relocation. That is not a count of people ordered to move. USDA estimated that at most 250 Forest Service employees would be relocated outside their local commuting areas, and the court said the actual number the department planned to move was unclear.

Appropriations dispute remains unresolved

The employee groups challenging the reorganization argued that congressional restrictions on appropriated funds barred the moves and that USDA had not adequately considered effects on its statutory work. The judge concluded that the restrictions likely remained in effect after related congressional-committee approval language was severed. USDA had argued that the resulting law gave it broad permission to redirect funds; the court found that interpretation unlikely to reflect Congress’s intent.

The relevant restrictions were initially set to expire Sept. 30, but Congress extended them through Dec. 11, 2026, according to the court. That date is not a guaranteed end date for the court’s stay. The ruling is preliminary, and the lawsuit’s ultimate merits remain undecided.

USDA argued that its reorganization would improve public services. The court’s account also says department leadership maintained that current employees would have positions in the department and that USDA had no current plans for workforce reductions. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz criticized the ruling after it was issued, according to Utah News Dispatch.

The order required USDA to notify affected employees and labor organizations within two business days and to file a declaration within seven business days describing its compliance. The ruling temporarily stops the specified covered actions, including the Salt Lake City headquarters move, but does not determine where the Forest Service headquarters will ultimately be located.