LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two key departments of the United States Department of Agriculture will be moving from Washington DC to Kansas City. 

The union for the employees, the American Federation of Government Employees says 80 percent of the affected employees are likely to decline reassignment.

More than 150 universities and agriculture groups sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Committee on Appropriations saying this would have a negative impact on agriculture research. 

From Governor Matt Bevin, to conservative researchers like Jordan Harris, the director of the right-leaning Pegasus Institute​, there is a common phrase on Kentucky’s job market.

“Right now we have 15,000 more open jobs than people searching for work," said Harris.

The AFGE says that could be the case if the planned move for the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) goes through. The union's study found that of 253 ERS employees picked to be relocated, the union says four out of five are likely to decline relocation.

The University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture works with NIFA closely.

“We have probably in the order of $15 million in competitive grants from USDA. That's about 32 different proposals that cover anything and everything related to agricultural research," said Robert Houtz, the Associate Dean for Research at  University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

Houtz says the work they do with USDA is invaluable for farmers, not just in Kentucky, but even throughout the world. "The research end of things is mainly tailored to experimental research, which is meant to provide the answers to increase the profitability in production capabilities of agriculture people that are involved in the industry. So, it's all devoted to investigative research at a basic level sometimes, other times at an applied level, also always using the scientific method."

USDA employees have until July 15 to decide if they will relocate or not. However, acting vice-president for the local union says USDA representatives won't meet with them after that day. 

While in Lexington for an event, USDA Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue addressed that, saying "We've been communicating with employees in both of these organizations ever since we began. The information that we've not kept people informed is not accurate. We tried to bring them in. We looked at all their qualifications from a quality of life perspective. We've been as gentle and as kind to any employee group that I know of, of taking into consideration their wants and their needs."

A report from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association says the expected mass attrition will leave lasting impacts on NIFA and ERS.

The group presented a report showing the two departments have vacancy rates at about 20 percent, adding that because of the qualifications needed for the job, they expect USDA to take 4 years to get back to staff, and it will take the new employees 4 years to be as productive as the current employees. 

Perdue says the move will be a good one for employees.  "I have no doubt that frankly, the research is going to be done in the new location of NIFA and ERA is going to be just as substantive. If I didn't think it would be better, we wouldn't have started in the first place."

Perdue says the move will save the department $300 million dollars over the next 15 years.  The AAEA report argues those numbers were over inflated, and when calculating in lost research, the move would actually cost taxpayers between $83 and $182 million.

Last week, the House passed a resolution saving money designated for ERS in the coming budget can't be used for the move.

Perdue said he isn't worried by that. Standing next to Senator Mitch McConnell, Perdue said, "The House and their committee might have pass that, but I'm dependent on Leader McConnell to make sure that those kind of prohibitions don't make it into the Congressional Budget."

Opponents of the move say it is meant to stifle research, especially on climate change. 

That is something UK is currently working on with NIFA. "I would say that it's pretty well-known that there are a lot of indicators of production areas for a lot of different agricultural commodities that are definitely moving according to geography areas and as a consequence of climate change," said Houtz.

When selecting the new location, Perdue said that Kansas City's midwest location was a major factor. 

Houtz wouldn't say if he thinks having NIFA and ERS closer to America's farmland is helpful. However, he did say, "In this day and age, I will say, there are more and more meetings that take place electronically."

Perdue says the move is scheduled to be done by September 30.