Federal Government Policy and Business

Legacy of civil rights progress at USDA [Commentary]

Federal Times: Under Secretary Tom Vilsack’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has come a long way over the past eight years to improve our record on civil rights. We prioritized anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, diversity and customer service training for employees across the department — including targeted workshops for field staff and leadership in more than a dozen states. As a direct result of these efforts, the number of civil rights complaints has plummeted.

Under the Obama Administration, USDA has consistently received the fewest complaints from program participants on record, with complaints from the Farm Service Agency — the USDA agency that deals most directly with farmers and ranchers — down by 70 percent. At the same time, complaints from USDA employees have also been drastically reduced. From 2001-2008, USDA employees filed 6,011 Equal Employment Opportunity complaints. Over the eight years of the Obama administration, 4,125 complaints were filed — a 31 percent reduction.

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