Farm Service Agency offices may be on the chopping block

Despite previous defeats in Congress, the Agriculture Department again is considering trying to close about one-fourth of the 2,353 country offices of the Farm Service Agency, according to the Associated Press.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services J.B. Penn said the numbers in the document obtained by the AP were not accurate.

"We may consolidate functions, but we're going to provide improved service," he said.

Penn met last week with the chairmen of the House and Senate Agriculture committees to discuss the plan, and state FSA directors are coming to Washington this week to be briefed about it. Southern states would be particularly hard hit because of the greater number of counties in those states.

"If the goal is to modernize the agency and to train employees for continued service improvement ... then he understands that reasoning," said a spokesman for Senate Agriculture Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., whose state could lose 38 of its 83 offices.

But Senate Agriculture ranking member Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said the plan seemed too drastic.

"Shuttering nearly a fourth of the FSA offices in Iowa can only lead to more inconvenience and less service for Iowans," Harkin said.