Is Trump moving the government out of Washington? 5 things to know. originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

President Donald Trump campaigned on a rallying cry to "Drain the Swamp," arguing the federal government is dysfunctional because Washington is corrupt and out of touch with the rest of the country.

Now critics say he's taken the first steps to take it apart.

The Trump administration wants to move hundreds of employees across the country: The question now is whether this plan would really shake things up and save money for government operations, or if it would just be a symbolic gesture.

PHOTO: The dome of the U.S. Capitol, April 18, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky/AP) More

Here's what to know:

Trump isn't moving entire federal agencies

The administration is moving offices at two of the government's largest agencies -- the Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior -- hundreds of miles across the country.

The administration announced this week that the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees public lands and issues permits for oil and gas drilling, would relocate the majority of its D.C.-based employees to offices around the country. The vast majority of BLM employees work in state-based offices, but Interior Department officials said the change would make more senior-level employees available on the local level and save the government millions of dollars on office space and allow for lower employee wages outside the D.C.-area.

The change for BLM is the second major change that would move an agency out of Washington. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also is moving about 550 positions to the Kansas City area, which would affect almost 400 employees.

85% of the federal workforce is already outside D.C.

Even though Washington is seen as the center of the government, the federal workforce is spread all over the country, in various regional offices or headquarters for various agencies.

The Washington, D.C., area has the largest concentration of federal employees -- almost 283,000 in 2017, according to the Office of Personnel Management that oversees the federal workforce. The Trump administration has also proposed eliminating that office entirely, according to The Washington Post.

That means roughly 14% of the more than 2 million federal workers are based in the D.C. area.

The USDA offices are moving to the Kansas City area, which already has around 18,000 federal workers. The BLM headquarters will move to Grand Junction, Colorado, and maintain an office separate from the regional office there. But that announcement has been met with mixed reactions because BLM employees will be spread across multiple western states instead of moving to Grand Junction en masse, which could give the area an economic boost.

Altogether, 222 BLM positions will continue officially working for headquarters out of local offices across the country, including Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, according to a letter released by Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner.

PHOTO: A worker arrives at the Department of Interior, Jan. 28, 2019 in Washington D.C. Last Friday President Donald Trump signed a temporary measure to reopen the government after it was partially shut down for 35 days. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) More

People with expertise don't want to move

The union representing employees at USDA research arms -- the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Economic Research Service, said it expects "catastrophic" departures as a result of the move.

In smaller offices at the Department of Agriculture, the agency said more than 50% of employees declined to relocate to Kansas City or haven't told the department what they will do. At the ERS, which studies the impact of economic policies on agriculture, USDA said 99 out of 171 employees don't plan to move.

At the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which works on agricultural research, 151 out of 224 employees slated to move declined or did not respond, according to ERS.

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