That's what is happening.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/7590...g-usda-research-agencies-point-to-brain-drain
But, it does make sense to have the Dept of Ag located near actual agriculture.
From your cite
This June the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plan to move two of its research agencies out of Washington, D.C., to the Kansas City area. Most of the people working at the agencies have since quit, leaving gaping holes in critical divisions. Researchers warn that the agency upheaval will starve farmers, policymakers and ultimately consumers out of the best possible information about food and the business of growing it.
This is indicative of the 'credentialism' nail I've been hammering lately. Going beyond the rampant hubris that only Washington apparatchiks can provide the 'best possible' information (and the realization that "best is the enemy of good enough") practically their sole claim to being the best is hagiographic and dependent on a heirarchy of degrees, where having gone to any Ivy alone is enough to make you smarter than someone who went to Notre Dame, or Penn State or Michigan. Especially with respect to agriculture, it would pay to look at what schools were/are doing the research on which forecasting is based and whether forecasting done inside the beltway is unbiased or is bent to serve political purposes (looking at you, EPA)
It would even be informative to look at where truly elite intellects did their undergrad work. Brilliant scientists often arise in modest schools and then are picked up by 'elite' schools for graduate work
The map is not the territory, the degree is not the mind behind it
tl;dr I'm highly skeptical the work of agencies will suffer when moved out of DC, and may even become better by becoming more apolitical