Equal Opportunity Data Required To Be Posted By The No Fear Act

Farm Services Agency (FSA)

This is the reporting page for the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (NO FEAR Act), Public Law 107-174.

USDA is posting this summary statistical Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint data under Title III, "Equal Employment Opportunity Complaint Data Disclosure, of the NO FEAR Act." The NO FEAR Act requires Federal Agencies to post cumulative year-to-date summary statistical EEO complaint data on a quarterly basis during each Fiscal Year (FY) as follows: January 31; April 30; July 31; and October 31. Currently, USDA is migrating its civil rights data to a new USDA-wide Enterprise System, therefore, some postings may be revised in the future.

Under the NO FEAR Act, in addition to quarterly data postings, Federal Agencies are required to post summary statistical EEO complaint data for each of the previous five fiscal years.

There are a total of 22 individual data postings for USDA Agencies and related entities, they are the following: (1) Agricultural Marketing Service; (2) Agricultural Research Service; (3) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, (4) Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, (5) Economic Research Service, (6) Farm Service Agency, (7) Food and Nutrition Service, (8) Food Safety and Inspection Service, (9) Foreign Agricultural Service, (10) Forest Service, (11) Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration, (12) National Agricultural Statistics Service, (13)Natural Resources Conservation Service, (14) Natural Resources and Environment - Mission Area, (15) Office of Chief Financial Officer, (16) Rural Business-Cooperative Service, (17) Rural Development Mission Area, (18) Rural Housing Service, (19) Risk Management Agency, (20) Rural Utilities Service (21) Other USDA Staff Offices, (22) all of USDA.

Other USDA Staff Offices includes: Departmental Administration (including Human Resources Management, Office of Operations, Procurement and Property Management, and Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization); National Appeals Division; Office of Budget and Program Analysis; Office of the Chief Economist; Office of the Chief Information Officer; Office of Civil Rights; Office of Communications; Office of Congressional Relations; Office of Executive Secretariat; Office of the General Counsel; Office of the Inspector General; Office of Outreach; and the Office of the Secretary. There are other USDA Staff Offices which are not listed since no EEO complaints were received for the reporting period.

The EEO summary statistical data required by Title III of the NO FEAR Act is organized in tables by fiscal year for each Agency. There are 11 items provided in each table, they are the following:

Item 1. The Number of Complaints Filed.
Item 2. The Number of Individuals Filing Those Complaints.
Item 3. The Number of Individuals Who Filed Two or More Complaints.
Item 4. The Number of Those Complaints Raising Each of the Various Bases of Alleged Discrimination. The bases protected by the EEO statutes are race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, age, and reprisal. Other bases that have been alleged, i.e., marital status, union membership, etc., are listed in a "non-EEOC-reportable" category. Note that one complaint may allege several bases. Therefore, the total number of complaints may not be equal to the total number of alleged bases.
Item 5. The Number of Those Complaints Raising Each of the Various Issues of Alleged Discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has provided Federal Agencies with a list of issues most commonly raised in complaints. Any issue raised that is not one of EEOC’s listed issues will be placed into the "Other" category.
Item 6. Average Length of Time to Complete Each Stage of the Complaint Process. The data is displayed in four columns. The first lists the different stages of the complaint process. The second lists the number of accepted complaints in each stage of the process. The third lists the cumulative number of processing days for all the accepted complaints processed through each stage. The fourth lists the average number of processing days for accepted complaints in each stage of the process.

Line 6a INVESTIGATION includes data for the entire Investigation Phase as defined by the NO FEAR Act beginning from date of receipt of a formal complaint, including acceptance and ending with the completion of the investigation.

Investigation (Agency): This sub-component under 6a INVESTIGATION shows the number of complaints and average number of processing days beginning in FY 2004 for those complaints where an agency was responsible for investigating complaints. In FY 2004, investigations became the responsibility of each agency. This sub-component calculates the average processing time from an agency’s receipt of an accepted formal complaint through the completion of the complaint’s investigation. This sub-component data is not a requirement of the NO FEAR Act.

Item 7. Final Agency Actions Involving a Finding of Discrimination. This item contains the number of complaints with a finding of discrimination. These complaints are separated by the number that had an EEOC Administrative Hearing and those that did not have an EEOC Administrative Hearing.
Item 8. Final Agency Actions Rendered Involving a Finding of Discrimination by Basis. This item contains the bases for the complaints where discrimination was found in a final agency action. More than one basis may be alleged for a single complaint, therefore, the total number of bases may be greater than the total number of complaints.
Item 9. Summary of EEO Active Complaints at the End of the Period Filed in Current and Previous Fiscal Years. This item contains those complaints that have been pending for the reporting period in the following categories: Acceptance/Dismissal (Counseling); Investigation; EEOC Administrative Hearing; Final Agency Actions; Appeal; and those complaints held in abeyance prior to a resolution of a class complaint.
Item 10. Final Agency Actions with a Finding of Discrimination by Issues. This item contains the issues raised in complaints where discrimination was found by the following categories: complaints that had an EEOC Administrative Hearing and complaints that did not have an EEOC Administrative Hearing.
Item 11. The Total Number of Complaints Pending For Any Length of Time In Which the Agency Has Not Completed Its Investigation Within the 180-Day Time Requirement Under 1614.106(e)(2). This item contains the number of pending complaints where the investigation was not completed within the 180 day time requirement categorized as follows: complaints received during the current fiscal year reported; and complaints received prior to the beginning of the current fiscal year reported.