February 6, 2002

The Honorable Ann M. Veneman
Secretary of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Secretary Veneman:

On behalf of the congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), we write to urge you to direct substantial changes in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) system of dealing with civil rights complaints, and to offer our support for creating a new position of Assistant Secretary of civil rights.

The USDA Office of Inspector General Audit report on the Office of Civil Rights Management of Employment Complaint, released in March 2000, found 1,731 complaints pending. The report also found that the USDA Office of Civil rights Equal Employment Opportunity database is "an unreliable repository of information," which prevented auditors from accurately determining the status of complaints. We find it troubling that the status of complaints filed with the office of Civil Rights cannot be established, let alone resolved. As you may know, both the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General have studied this problem and have come up with specific recommendations that we believe will help the current situation. We urge you to give serious consideration to these recommendations.

We have routinely heard from minority USDA employees across the country who face hostile work environments, discrimination, and reprisal. An ineffective Office of Civil Rights only serves to exacerbate these problems.

In light of USDA’s poor track record in effectively and efficiently handling civil rights complaints, we believe that improved oversight can be achieved by establishing the position of Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights. This Assistant Secretary would, once and for all, be responsible for coordinating USDA civil rights enforcement and compliance across department agencies.

We recognize that this is a situation you have inherited, not created. We urge you to take a leadership role in overhauling the Office of Civil Rights so that USDA employees’ concerns can be adequately addressed. USDA has an important mandate to combat hunger, ensure food security and provide land stewardship. USDA employees should be able to work in an environment where they can advance the mission of the department rather than struggle for simple civil rights which all Americans have come to expect.

We look forward to hearing from you on your plans for the Office of Civil Rights, and working with you on the many other issues at the Department of Agriculture.