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USDA to seek extra money to fix computer glitch
In what appeared to be an acute embarrassment for the Bush administration, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns acknowledged Tuesday that the Farm Service Agency computer system that provides payments to farmers has broken down and that he will have to ask Congress for a special allocation to fix it.
Since the 1930s, USDA has operated a system of offices in every county in the country to which farmers go to register their acreage and sign up for subsidies and disaster aid. In past years, the administration has argued that USDA could close or consolidate county offices because farmers could file online. Congress, however, has resisted those closures.
Johanns did not mention the computer problem in his formal testimony on the fiscal 2008 budget before the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. But he did respond when Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Robert Bennett, R-Utah, noted that he had been receiving complaints from farmers who had been told they should attempt to use the FSA computer system only at certain hours.
Bennett added that he assumed Johanns has a plan to deal with the problem since the administration did not ask for money to address it in the budget.
Johanns told Bennett that he was going to have to ask for "help" with the computer system.
"Does 'help' mean money?" Bennett asked.
"It always does in government," Johanns replied, adding that within three weeks USDA would make a "business case" for its request.
Johanns said the FSA software began to malfunction in 2006 when the agency was trying to use the system for the milk income loss contract program, and that the situation had only gotten worse.
Johanns said that when a farmer puts information into the system, that information is forwarded to the FSA computing center in Kansas City, but that if the agency does not process the information within a certain period of time "the information is knocked out." The computer system is "dark" part of the day in parts of the country, Johanns added.
Johanns said that he would ask for money for a "short-term response," but that it would take three years to build a proper computer system for FSA.
When asked after the hearing if farmers should give up trying to file applications online, Johanns said, "Today would not be a good day to flex your muscles with our system."
COMMENTS
- Well coming from the IT areas has given me insight into how the processes can fix this problem. You see, I am a computer expert who had to move back closer to family with my kids. I have extensive skills in IS/IT and have helped to develop many tools used within other states. Some I have had a hand in are the Animal ID system and the NRCS “One Plan” land management systems that came out of the state of Idaho. In the 90s, I had worked for Micron PC for a number of years as a programmer; I helped with shipping and logistics of data. Database access and setup and delivery processes. In the mid-2000 times, I also worked with HP; I helped to setup their support infrastructure on imaging and printing tools. This helped to address internet tools and multi-shop support areas that are world wide today. Enough about me; XML, RFID, and many simple tools and data encapsulation methods can be employed to help speed up the process, get around some of the process hurdles and add robustness to the taxed programs that are barely supported within the USDA infrastructure. Someone should also ask the main man or woman (who really needs to have some technical business savvy people around them if he/she wants to use Main-Frame or Client Server approach as you cannot effectively use both. Mainframe programming is still viable but your support and tools base of persons are more like astronauts. Client Server is the method of having more servers doing more tasks and less to moderate workload on the clients in the field. If you employed the later method, you could process locally all the items that are going to the mother ship to be processed and cut down on the slow return trips. Just my 2 cents. GovExec.com reader Posted March 2, 2007 10:20 AM
- Just another example of poor management in FSA. Keep asking employees to do more and more with less and less. Morale is down because management wants to close offices without giving a decent explanation as to why and when? If you knew you were going to bring more of the public online with self certification why would you not have the foresight to upgrade a very outdated computer system? GovExec.com reader Posted March 1, 2007 8:24 AM
