[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 108 (Monday, July 28, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5896-H5897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               USDA ACCOUNTABILITY AND EQUITY ACT OF 1997

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, when the history of this century is 
written, it is my hope that the year 1997 will be recorded as 
significant in the effort to change the course and the culture of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  Known as the People's Department, USDA was established when President 
Lincoln signed the law on May 15, 1862. It is ironic that the very 
Department created by the President who signed the Emancipation 
Proclamation today faces widespread and documented charges of unfair 
and unequal treatment to socially disadvantaged and minority farmers.
  Farmers and ranchers are invaluable resources to all of us. The 
farmers and ranchers of America, including minority and limited 
resource producers through their labor sustain each and every one of us 
and maintain the lifeblood of our Nation and the world. These people do 
not discriminate. Their products are for all of us. Therefore, it is 
important that we do all within our power to ensure that each and every 
producer is able to farm without the additional burden of institutional 
discrimination rearing its ugly head.
  It greatly concerns me, Mr. Speaker, that in my home State of North 
Carolina there has been a 64-percent decline in minority farmers just 
over the last 15 years, from 6,996 farms in 1978 to 2,498 farms in 
1992.
  There are several reasons as to why the number of minority and 
limited resource farmers are declining so rapidly, but one that has 
been documented time and time again is the discriminatory environment 
present in the Department of Agriculture, which was the very agency 
established by the U.S. Government to accommodate and to assist the 
special needs of all farmers and ranchers.
  Mr. Speaker, the issue was first raised in 1965, when the U.S. 
Commission on Civil Rights established that USDA discriminated both in 
internal employee action and external program delivery activities. An 
ensuing USDA employee focus group in 1970 reported the USDA was callous 
in their institutional attitude and demeanor regarding civil rights and 
equal opportunity.
  In 1982, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights examined this issue a 
second time and published a report entitled ``The Decline of Black 
Farming in America.'' The Commission concluded that there were 
widespread prejudicial practices in loan approval, loan servicing, and 
farm management assistance as administered by the Farmers Home 
Administration.

  However, as no improvement was forthcoming, in 1990 the House 
Committee on Government Operations, chaired by my colleague, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Conyers] investigated this matter again. 
In their report entitled ``The Minority Farmer: A Disappearing 
Resource; Has the Farmers Home Administration Been the Primary 
Catalyst?'', the same conclusion was reached in 1990 as had been 
reached in 1982. That conclusion was that, ``Ironically, the Farmers 
Home Administration had been a catalyst in the decline of minority 
farming.''
  In 1997, the General Accounting Office published yet another report 
on the matter, entitled ``Farm Programs: Efforts to Achieve Equitable 
Treatment to Minority Farmers.'' While much of the report was 
inconclusive due to its limited scope, the GAO did find instances of 
discrimination. Two cases out of the 28 closed in fiscal year 1995 and 
1996. The GAO also found that the disapproval rate for loans was 6-
percent higher for minority farmers than the 10-percent rate for the 
nonminority farmer.
  The very next month, two additional reports were released: The Office 
of Inspector General Evaluation report for the Secretary on Civil 
Rights Issues and the Civil Rights Action Team report. The authors of 
these hard-hitting reports came to the identical conclusion that those 
who had looked at this issue 32 years previously, there are significant 
problems with discrimination within the Department of Agriculture.
  On February 28, 1997, the Civil Rights Action Team report was issued 
and entitled ``Civil Rights at the United States Department of 
Agriculture.'' It was done by the Civil Rights Implementation Team at 
USDA, and it documents the decades of discrimination against minorities 
and women within the Department. Ninety-two recommendations for change 
were made in the report, 13 which require legislation action.
  I have introduced the bill, H.R. 2185, that seeks to implement most 
of those legislative recommendations within the CRAT report. The bill 
is entitled the ``USDA Accountability and Equity Act of 1997.'' It 
consists of three titles; title I, Program Accountability, making 
changes to the structure of the county committees as well as to the 
status of county committee employees. County committees are retained, 
and the tenure of county committee employees is preserved and 
protected. Title II, Program Equity, makes provisions for those 
producers who are of marginal financial standing to continue to 
participate in USDA loans and programs. These provisions recognize

[[Page H5897]]

the financial hardship created by USDA.
  It is my hope, Mr. Speaker, that through this legislation and other 
efforts we will continue with steady movement toward an emancipation 
proclamation for socially disadvantaged farmers and minority farmers.

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