Release No. 0311.00
By
Deputy Secretary Rich
Rominger
USDA's Second Hispanic Leadership Summit
on
Recruitment And Employment
Washington, D.C. - September 13, 2000
"Thanks to everyone here for joining us. Thanks to Debbie Matz and Departmental Administration staff who worked on this event. I also want to recognize the talents and efforts of Nancy Robinson, USDA's first Hispanic Employment Program Manager."
" We're very pleased to have all of you here. As the Secretary said at the first Hispanic Leadership Summit in May, this is a partnership that's extremely important to us. We want to be accountable to the leaders of Hispanic and federal employee organizations, both inside and outside of USDA. We're not satisfied with USDA's track record on recruiting and hiring Hispanics. Not only do we insist that we do better within our own ranks. We want you to know how we're doing, and be part of this process. We feel that to be truly pro-active, we need to work on both of these levels."
"There's no single goal here with one, set target date. This is about more than numbers. This is about changing a culture. Increasing the employment numbers is a key part of that change. This is an ongoing process, a long and complicated process that demands our attention and accountability on many fronts."
"On a broad level, our goals for Hispanic employment are in sync with our overriding goals for civil rights throughout the department. In June, when Secretary Glickman took stock of our progress, he said that civil rights is about human understanding. It's about communicating, opening oneself to other points of view. It's about respect."
"Part of solving USDA's civil rights problems requires better representation of minorities and women. As Debbie Matz will explain, even while we've downsized USDA's workforce, we've increased the percentage of Hispanic and other minority employees. In many ways, USDA must be a snapshot of the population at large. Hispanics are this nation's fastest-growing minority group, with a corresponding influence in national affairs."
"The Secretary also said in June that he'll continue to address civil rights and employee concerns by building on a process that's already working. He's forming five additional employee advisory committees because the two already in existence are succeeding in giving these communities a voice.
So the Hispanic Advisory Council serves as a model for our civil rights goals throughout the department."
"I want to recognize the Council's outstanding leadership -- co-chairs Enrique Figueroa and Hilda Diaz-Soltero - and thank them for HAC's fine work on USDA's "Hispanic Employment Plan." Responding to the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, the Office of Personnel Management developed a sort of model -- generally called the "9 point plan" -- to help agencies improve Hispanic employment. HAC's plan went well beyond OPM's guideline and I'm pleased to tell you that it's recently been endorsed by the Secretary. This is one more reflection of USDA's commitment to increasing Hispanic employment and to cultural diversity in our workforce and program delivery. "
"On other fronts, with its $580,000 budget this year, HAC is working with the Office of Human Resources to train recruiters. It's funding a study for the Office of Outreach on small and medium-sized Hispanic businesses, and identifying barriers to their participation as USDA vendors. It's funding an outreach conference in San Antonio, Texas, in November, aimed at helping people take advantage of USDA services that are there for them ...helping them learn to apply for 2501 program funds and fully use our programs that reach into communities. "
"One of the most exciting developments is this publication that's still at the printer - I have a rough copy here. HAC is helping pay for 30,000 copies of "Quick Facts," that will provide all kinds of important data on Hispanic farm operators."
"This publication is the brainchild of Juan Marinez, USDA's first Farmworker Coordinator. Juan worked closely with HAC and the National Agricultural Statistics Service to show, for example, that the number of farms operated by Hispanics rose by nearly a third from 1992 to 1997. Since 1978, Hispanic-operated farms increased by 58 percent, while all other farms decreased by 15 percent."
"Juan stresses that there are many stories to be told that go beyond the scope of this brochure. For one, more than 87 percent of Hispanic operators are traditional family farmers, contributing to the cultural heritage and rural economic strength of this nation. For another, many new Hispanic operators had their start in the farmworker labor pool and many today are both farm owners and workers."
" USDA is looking for more ways to reach out to farm laborers. In the same way that President Clinton speaks about building "one America" by letting the river of opportunity flow to every community and every person, we recognize that there can only be "one agriculture."
"Because we recognize that labor issues are vital to the whole of agriculture, we've pushed for aid for farmworkers hurt by floods and fires. We've been on board on farmworker housing issues. One work-in-progress is a new partnership between USDA and the Department of Labor that will link up via the Internet farmworkers needing jobs and producers needing labor. And this year, for the first time in many years, USDA hosted the Migrant Federal Interagency Committee. "
"USDA may be known as the "People's Department," but there's still the misconception that those "people" are all farm owners and agribusiness. The fact is, USDA works for the entire food system and everyone vital to it, including farmworkers. And in this month that celebrates the nation's Hispanic heritage, it's critical that we recognize that USDA can do a better job for all our customers if our ranks reflect the true cultural diversity of one America. Thank you. "
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