Rep. Tim Ryan proposes relocating parts of the federal government to the rest of the country

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washington Examiner

Rep. Tim Ryan has a dramatic idea for how to spread some wealth around: Spread the government around.

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees, backed by record-high government spending, have contributed to a regional economy that anyone could envy; the four richest counties in the United States neighbor the nation's capital. So Ryan wants lawmakers to establish a commission that would develop a plan to "decentralize" the federal government, with a particular eye on helping the working-class economies that have suffered the most over the last decade.

"We have a lot more employees in the federal government than we ever imagined as a country, and we are in a position where a good number of these jobs don't necessarily need to be in Washington, D.C.," the Ohio Democrat told the Washington Examiner.

Ryan has introduced legislation that would set up a commission comprising eight lawmakers evenly split between both parties in the House and Senate. Together with two members appointed by the head of the General Services Administration, the agency responsible for managing the rest of the federal government agencies, the commission would have to recommend agencies to relocate by the fall of 2019.

"You're not going to want to take a [Cabinet] secretary and necessarily move them to Youngstown," Ryan said. "The headquarters may need to remain at Washington, D.C., but what backroom operations, what agencies within the department could be located in [another] city?"

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Who wants a government agency?