Lawmakers criticize USDA efforts in resolving racism

By Randy Fabi/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. farm senators on Tuesday vented their frustrations with the Clinton administration after U.S. Agriculture Department officials testified that little progress has been made to resolve racial discrimination within the federal agency.

"I believe this is totally unacceptable," said Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, during a Senate Agriculture committee hearing. "Doesn't anyone ever get fired in the Agriculture Department?"

Roger Viadero, USDA's Inspector General, told the Senate Agriculture committee that the agency's civil rights division, which is responsible for resolving internal discrimination complaints, remained "demoralized."

"Throughout our seven phases of review, the Office of Civil Rights has been a portrait of a dysfunctional agency," Viadero said.

The USDA's Office of Inspector General in March issued its eighth review in three years of the agency's civil rights division, saying it remained inefficient and in a state of chaos, having lost dozens of files and mishandled hundreds more.

Sen. Richard Lugar, Senate Agriculture Committee chairman and Indiana Republican, said USDA officials needed to be held responsible.

"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," Lugar said.

USDA officials said much was being done to resolve a decades-old problem, which has been closely investigated only within the last few years. They point to a 67 percent increase in lending to black farmers since 1995, improvements in minority representation among USDA employees and tightened accountability for its staff members.

"We are not here to tell you that our problems are fixed," Paul Fiddick, assistant agriculture secretary for administration, said. "We're here to tell you that we take them seriously, and that we are doing everything we can to fix them."

Thirteen USDA employees have been fired and 81 others have been disciplined in connection with racial discrimination since 1998, the USDA said.

The USDA is one of the largest federal employers, with more than 84,000 employees.

Black farmers and workers at the USDA, which some call "The Last Plantation," have accused the department of shutting them out of government loans and job promotions for decades because of the color of their skin.

The black farmers, who are estimated to have lost thousands of acres of land during the years of discrimination, reached a settlement with the department last year in a class action lawsuit and have been meeting with officials to obtain practical relief.

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