Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Thursday warned the House Agriculture Committee that a sweeping reform plan drafted by Chairman Bob Smith, R-Ore., "would cause turmoil in the ranks" if it were imposed on top of the reorganization effort initiated by the department in 1994.
Smith Wednesday introduced a bill that would combine the Agriculture Department's Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, abolish the position of undersecretary for natural resources and environment and establish the position of undersecretary of forestry.
Smith's plan to create an undersecretaryship for forestry reflects the strong interest in forestry issues in his Oregon district, but the bill was written in reaction to complaints about reorganization and civil rights problems at the USDA.
Consolidation of the USDA's farm program and farm loan offices has proven rocky.
Since the 1930s, federal farm program benefits have been delivered through farmer-elected county committees. Those panels certify farmers for farm programs and appoint county executive directors, who, in turn, hire staffs to calculate farm program benefits and pay them.
The county employees follow federal employment rules and are paid with federal funds, but they are not considered federal employees.
A separate system of offices made loans to low-income farmers from the 1930s until 1994, when the farm benefits and loan offices were merged.
Since the mergers, farm loan officers have resisted supervision by county executive directors because federal rules say that federal employees cannot be supervised by others.
In addition, the National Black Farmers Association has protested that both the county committee system and the loan officers have discriminated against black farmers.
The Smith bill makes it clear that only federal employees should handle the USDA's farm loan programs and directs the USDA secretary to appoint two nonvoting members to the farmer-elected county committees who determine local farmers' eligibility for farm program benefits.
Rep. Eva Clayton, D-N.C., has introduced a bill which would federalize the county employees and make other changes in the USDA's civil rights procedures, mostly along the lines the administration wants.
Clayton's bill would also require the appointment of voting members to the committees in areas where minorities and women are unrepresented.
The Clayton and Smith bills would affect nearly every county in the nation and they have generated mixed reaction.
The National Association of Conservation Districts testified in opposition to merging the NRCS with the FSA.
The National Association of Farmer Elected Committees testified that county committee control of employees provides the "grassroots control" over programs at the local level consistent with Vice President Gore's National Performance Review.
The Federal Managers Association testified against federalizing the county employees because they would not be required to go through the federal hiring process, and would have seniority over more recently hired federal employees.
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