"Spread the swamp": Taking Washington out of DC

[Berkut]

I would absolutely support some kind of long term plan to move, say, 50% of federal government offices/work/etc. out of DC, as a starting effort.

There is no real need anymore to have the entire federal apparatus concentrated in one area anymore, and lots of good reasons to spread it out.

[The Brain]

Sweet sweet pork.

[Valmy]

Yeah move it all to WV so they can stop bitching about coal.

[Berkut]

That is probably the worst thing about the idea of moving any of it - the decision on where and how to move it would be complete political and based not at all on anything that makes any damn sense.

[crazy canuck]

That is probably the worst thing about the idea of moving any of it - the decision on where and how to move it would be complete political and based not at all on anything that makes any damn sense.

That is what happened when our Federal government started moving services out of Ottawa.   In hindsight there is a lot to be said for having a critical mass of services located on one geographical area as those separate departments can easily borrow expertise from other departments.  When hundreds or thousands of miles separate them it becomes more difficult.