USDA BEGINS HIRING 1,000 NEW STAFF TO AID WITH FARM BILL IMPLEMENTATION

Release No. 0237.02

Alisa Harrison (202) 720-4623

Dann Stuart (202) 690-0474

Washington, June 7, 2002 – Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today announced the authorization to hire an additional 1,000 employees to aid county offices throughout the country expedite implementation of The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

“USDA is strongly committed to ensuring that the new farm bill is implemented as carefully, effectively and timely as possible,” said Veneman. “These new hires, along with comprehensive training and information technology advances, will help ensure we meet our commitment.”

This first round of staffing will account for about 40 percent of the additional employment needed to implement the new law. The new farm bill contained $55 million for farm bill implementation. The Bush Administration had requested $110 million because the new law contains extensive modifications to existing laws, creates many new programs, and has a very aggressive implementation timeline. Putting the programs of the new law into place, most of which are applicable to the 2002 crops, significantly increases the workload of the Farm Service Agency (FSA), which had been steadily reducing staff since the enactment of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.

A newly completed workload assessment for the new law provides estimates of the additional staff required at the county offices, Washington headquarters, and other field offices for timely implementation of the new law. Based on this assessment, the agency is hiring the first group of approximately 1,000 temporary employees, most for local FSA offices in parts of the country where the expanded workload will be the greatest.

“These new employees will go to the offices with the least staff and where the workload will be the greatest,” said FSA Administrator James R. Little. “While the new law provided some funding for implementation, USDA had requested a larger amount, and is seeking additional resources through a supplemental Congressional appropriation or the regular appropriations process.”

USDA began implementing the new law immediately upon enactment. Secretary Veneman named an implementation team to reduce the red tape and expedite approval of all the new regulations. The Department has also launched a new farm bill web site featuring responses to frequently asked questions. Correspondence has been sent to producers describing significant program changes and identifying information they will need to provide when enrollment begins for the new programs.