Secretary Dan Glickman

In this column in the June 2000 USDA News I discussed some of the progress we had made to improve our civil rights performance at USDA. But I want to revisit this issue because it is so important and because the pursuit of civil rights is an ongoing journey.

On June 29, I gathered USDA senior management, administrators, human resources staff, civil rights, and other employees at the Whitten Building in Washington, where I gave a speech about that civil rights journey. I want to share some of those thoughts with you.

I’m proud of our civil rights accomplishments--increased farm lending to women and minorities; more contracts awarded to socially disadvantaged and minority firms; a landmark legal settlement; and greater diversity in the USDA workforce, among other things. But this is no time for a victory lap. There is plenty of work still to be done, and I am committed to pushing this issue relentlessly during my remaining months in office.

I have announced several new steps that will further advance the cause of civil rights at USDA. We are going to increase accountability, making it more difficult for people to use the civil rights settlement process to avoid disciplinary action. We will be hiring outside contractors to help us manage the overwhelming backlog of civil rights complaints. We will be sending outside investigation teams into selected areas to closely evaluate civil rights compliance in our local offices. And we are increasing the number of employee minority advisory committees, which give employees the opportunity to influence USDA civil rights policy.

These structural changes are important, but civil rights begins with basic human relations, whether it’s a manager communicating with his or her staff or an FSA county employee explaining our programs and services to a family farmer. Ultimately, for any policy or process to work, we have to treat each other with decency and respect, seeing past each other’s differences. How we treat each other defines who we are.

In January 2001 there will be a new President, a new Administration and a new Secretary of Agriculture. But the USDA commitment to civil rights will not end there. When I sit down to brief my successor on the important issues facing the Department, civil rights will be at the very top of the list. Ultimately, I believe that the employees and customers of USDA will hold the next Secretary’s feet to the fire, and the next one and the one after that if necessary, until this journey is complete.

We simply cannot afford to allow civil rights problems to interfere with our work. So while this is about justice, it's also about our ability to meet our commitments to the people we serve.

As USDA becomes a civil rights leader, it not only meets a moral obligation, it becomes a more effective Department as well, better able to provide its critical services to the American people. It not only becomes a better place to work, it becomes a better-working place, one that is true to its name: the People’s Department.