Release No. 0319.97
                                                               
                                                               
                                   Jim Petterson (202) 720-4623
                                         jim.petterson@usda.gov
                                  Martha Cashion (202) 720-3310
                                        martha.cashion@usda.gov

GLICKMAN NAMES LUKEN AS ACTING GENERAL COUNSEL FOR USDA


     WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today named
Bonnie L. Luken acting general counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
effective  today.  Luken fills the vacancy left by James S.             
Gilliland who served as USDA's general counsel for over four years before
resigning on Sept. 12.

     "Although we will miss Jim Gilliland as part of the top USDA management
team, we are fortunate to have such a competent and effective individual as
Bonnie Luken to take over leadership for the general counsel's office,"         
Glickman said. "Her background of over 15 years with the general counsel's
office provides a broad range of invaluable experience."

     Luken has been serving as deputy general counsel for USDA since 1993.  She
first came to the Office of the General Counsel in 1976 as a staff attorney. 
In that capacity, she gained extensive experience with USDA's food assistance
programs, especially the National School Lunch Program and the WIC Program. 
She became deputy general counsel for the Food and Nutrition Division in 1988.
Since assuming the deputy general counsel position in 1993, she has worked
extensively with management in all areas of USDA.

     Luken grew up on a family farm in central Illinois, near Springfield,
Ill.  She received a B.S. degree in social welfare from the University of
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1973 and a J.D. from Rutgers University School
of Law in Camden, N.J., in 1976.

                                 
                                 
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