Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee

Chairman Dick Lugar, U.S. Senator for Indiana

Date: 9/12/00

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Lugar Opening Statement on USDA Civil Rights Hearing

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar delivered the following opening statement at a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee to review the operation of the Office of Civil Rights, USDA and the role of the Office of General Counsel, USDA, in addressing discrimination complaints pertaining to program delivery and employment.

The Senate Agriculture Committee continues its work to help solve the problem of discrimination at the United State Department of Agriculture. We have held meetings with USDA officials, and we have enlisted the help of the General Accounting Office. When I met with Secretary Glickman in October last year, I told him that this issue was of the utmost importance to me personally, and I received his word that he was doing all he could to address the situation.

As part of this Committee's oversight responsibility, we have consistently looked at management of USDA programs and made suggestions on how to better manage the Department's resources. The problem of systemic discrimination, however, does not lend itself easily to a management critique. The troubles at the United States Department of Agriculture require more than a new computer system or a new business process. Many of the problems that will be discussed today stem from personal behavior that is difficult to eliminate in a department of more than 100,000 employees. However, it is the duty of this committee to ensure that all laws and policies are strictly followed and that those who believe that they have been discriminated against receive appropriate and speedy resolution of their grievances. That does not seem to be happening at USDA.

In recent years there has been an increasing number of class action lawsuits and administrative complaints against USDA alleging discrimination. These lawsuits and complaints are of two types - program complaints and employment discrimination complaints. The program complaints are those involving members of the public who are the participants in USDA programs. The second type involve employees of the Department who believe they have been victims of some type of discrimination. Today's hearing includes witnesses with information related to both of these types of discrimination.

We will hear from Mr. John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers Association;

Mr. John Zippert, the Director of Operations for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives

and Chairman of the Board of the Rural Coalition; Mr. Lawrence Lucas, representing the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees; Mr. Harold Connor of Upper Marlboro, Maryland; Mr. Alexander Pires, an attorney in Washington, D.C. and Ms. Juanita Carranza of Lambert, Montana.

Our second panel will include Mr. Paul Fiddick, the Assistant Secretary for Administration at USDA; Mr. Charlie Rawls, the USDA General Counsel and Ms. Rosalyn Gray, Director of the USDA Office of Civil Rights.

On our first panel we will hear testimony from Mr. Roger Viadero, the USDA Inspector General and from Mr. Bob Robertson of the U.S. General Accounting Office. As their testimony will indicate, this is a problem that has been thoroughly studied. Since 1997, the USDA Inspector General has performed at least eight reviews evaluating the Department's efforts to solve the complex civil rights problems at the Department. The General Accounting Office has also studied the issue. Both OIG and GAO made numerous recommendations to help solve the problems. The most troubling aspect of these reports is how few of the deficiencies identified by either OIG or GAO in previous reports are ever corrected.

Despite these reports and repeated efforts by USDA officials, the problems persist. Effective managers are not being hired to solve the problems, and employees are merely being shuffled from agency to agency in an appearance of problem solving and management revamping. Yet results have not emerged.

The missing link here seems to be one of accountability - from the highest level of management to the county supervisor in the field who fails to adequately service an African American farmer's loan.

Respect for the civil rights of all Americans is of paramount importance to me. I am committed to doing all I can to solve these problems at USDA.

With this in mind, I would like our witnesses to focus on solutions to the problems and solutions that can bring accountability into the equation. # # #