What if Washington D.C. housed only the Presidency, the Congress and the Supreme Court? What if all other federal agencies were located across the nation in various states? After all, the Center for Disease Control is headquartered in Atlanta and does not appear to need to be in D.C. to operate efficiently. What would be the impact?
1. Attracting and retaining qualified individuals would be less costly. Many low level federal jobs are difficult to fill with qualified people. Staff pay is much higher in D.C. because it is so difficult to find qualified employees that can afford to live in the greater D.C. area on the salary offered. This is not true in the rest of the nation where housing and cost of living are generally lower.
2. Federal agencies would be less impacted by direct lobbying. Instead, the agency staff would hear from their neighbors in middle America and thus be more in tune with how citizens expect the job to be done. Superfluous activities and purchases would be more obvious to the people so less of it would occur.
3. No need for a shadow government. With government all over the Nation, an attack on our nation’s capital would have a much lesser impact on the daily workings of the federal government.
4. Congress would be so busy trying to get a federal agency located in their district, that all other issues would be insignificant. Congressional members with agencies in their state or district would be much less likely to make drastic cuts to the programs involved.
5. It would be more cost effective to operate federal agencies outside of D.C. Over time, most jobs would pay less. As federal employees retire, their jobs would be filled at an appropriate pay scale for the geographic location of the agency. Also, office space would likely be much cheaper as office space in D.C is among the priciest in the nation. The land where bases shut down would be a good start for placement of some agencies. Most states and cities would probably offer the federal government a deal for locating in their community.
6. Better educated citizens. With agencies located in their communities, people would want to know more about it and their neighbors that were employed by that agency would likely talk about their work.
7. Key executive staff may have to travel more in order to report to the legislature, however this cost would likely be completely offset by savings related to office space and employee staffing.