December 5, 2001

The Honorable Tom Daschle
Majority Leader
United States Senate
S-221 Capitol
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Daschle:

On behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Cacus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus we are writing today to express our wholehearted support for your proposed amendment to create an Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). According, we urge the Senate to vote in favor of this important amendment.

Historical inequities and discrimination within some parts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture have long led to significant hardship among minority and disadvantaged farmers. As a result, many of these farmers operate without the same programmatic assistance from USDA that the majority of United States farmers take for granted. The unfortunate result of this is that those farmers who need assistance the most are too often left without the requisite support to maintain profitable farm and ranch operations. These farmers continuously struggle under adverse and openly hostile circumstances to obtain basic services and maintain livelihoods for themselves and their families, and in the worst cases lose their farms due to forclosures.

The failure to address these inequities in any comprehensive fashion led to the need to restore justice in the costly Pigford v. Glickman settlement and related litigation. In one of the largest and costliest class action lawsuits ever brought against the United States government, the settlement under this case acknowledged, for the first time, significant civil rights abuses against black farmers. As a result, over 12,000 farmers have received over $600,000,000 in redress for the discrimination that they suffered. However, civil rights complaints and abuses at the Department of Agriculture go far beyond black farmers and continue to this day. In fact, there are still several cases pending which deal with discrimination between USDA and Hispanic, American Indian, Asian and Women farmers. These cases demand immediate resolution.

While progress has been made, there remains an ongoing need for the Department of Agriculture to increase its civil rights activity and oversight. Currently, the civil rights division at the Department of Agriculture, rather than being an independent entity reporting directly to the Secretary of Agriculture, is subsumed under the administrative wing of the Department of Agriculture and reports instead to the Assistant Secretary for Administration. This inadequate oversight structure has also led to weak enforcement of anti-discrimination policies within USDA, affecting hundreds of minority employees. Both the USDA Office of the Inspector General and the General Accounting Office have found the USDA’s Office of Civil Rights to be poorly organized, resulting in the loss of many EEO complaint files.

It is time for the Department of Agriculture to exhibit its seriousness about civil rights by creating an Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. This Assistant Secretary will, once and for all, be responsible for coordinating USDA civil rights enforcement and compliance across department agencies. By approving this amendment, you can help create an improved work environment for minority employees at USDA and ensure the economic survival and advancement of socially disadvantaged, minority, and small farm owners and assure that the unique economic and cultural contributions of minority, women, and socially disadvantaged farmers can continue well into the future.

The Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus thank you for your efforts in this regard and urge passage of this important amendment.

Sincerely,