Senators, ex-USDA chief urge resolution of civil rights issues

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and ranking member Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman urging her to resolve issues of civil rights discrimination and inequality at the department. Likewise, Dan Glickman, the Clinton administration's Agriculture Secretary, said in an interview shortly before he left office Jan. 20 that he had told Veneman that civil rights is an important area of her responsibility. In their letter, dated Feb. 1, Lugar and Harkin pointed out that Agriculture's Assistant Secretary for administration, Paul Fiddick, had told the committee that the department would soon complete a long-term civil rights management plan. Lugar and Harkin asked Veneman to supply the committee with the plan. Fiddick is a former corporate executive brought to USDA by the Clinton administration for his management ability, rather than political expertise. After President Bush's swearing-in, Fiddick served as Secretary for less than an hour until Veneman was sworn in. Veneman has kept Fiddick in his job, at least temporarily. Lugar and Harkin told Veneman "the committee is aware that there are numerous class action lawsuits pending against the department" and asked her to provide an accounting of these suits. "Of particular concern to the committee is the issue of accountability for discriminatory actions against customers and employees," Lugar and Harkin wrote. "Considering the number of civil rights cases settled or under consideration, it is alarming that strong disciplinary action has been taken against so few employees." The two senators asked Veneman to inform them how many employees had been terminated in the civil rights cases. Lugar and Harkin also voiced concerns about understaffing issues at Agriculture's Office of Civil Rights. The senators pointed out that employees from the Farm Service Agency's civil rights office had been detailed to the top-level Office of Civil Rights, but noted that agency has a poor record on civil rights. Glickman made a substantial effort in the civil rights area, settling a number of lawsuits brought by black farmers. Last year, both Hispanic and American Indian farmers also brought suits against Agriculture. Civil rights "was an issue that was a festering sore at USDA until five, six, seven years ago," said Glickman. "We are treating everything now. Not everything has healed as quickly as I would like it to heal, but we are dealing with it in a much more open way."