Staff at local farm offices won't be cut, Agriculture chief says

The Bush administration wants to continue its streamlining efforts at the Farm Service Agency, but is not proposing any staff cuts, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Monday. The Agriculture Department's Farm Service Agency (FSA) hands out farm subsidies and takes applications for disaster assistance. The FSA has offices in nearly every county in the United States. The people who staff these county offices are employees of the local Farm Service Agency boards, but they are paid with federal funds.

Both Congress and previous administrations have exerted pressure on FSA offices to consolidate, but have run into resistance from farmers and community leaders because FSA offices are considered good for local economies. Veneman told reporters at a budget briefing Monday that the administration wants to continue the trend of "one stop shopping" for farmers by putting FSA, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rural Development Administration offices together. "It makes sense that we have service centers to the greatest degree possible," Veneman said. But the agency's proposed 2003 budget includes funding to keep local office staff members on board. Veneman also said that the Bush administration wants to invest significant amounts of money in information technology to benefit farmers. Specifically, the administration supports development of geospatial information systems, which will computerize maps of all farms in the country. At present, each FSA office keeps pen and ink drawings of each farm in its office. "The development of modern digitized databases with common land unit information integrated with soils and crop data and other farm records and related initiatives is critical to the development of more efficient and effective customers services at our service centers and will greatly facilitate realization of the potential benefits from electronic government," the USDA budget document said.