USDA OFFICES WILL CONSOLIDATE; STAFFS WILL NOT BE REDUCED

The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to close 43 field offices in Missouri as part of a national restructuring move.

But U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said Congress would review the plan and it would likely take several years before any final action is taken.

A spokesman for the congressman said Friday that the latest plans call for closing Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) offices in Perryville, Marble Hill, Dexter and Sikeston. Offices of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, and the Soil Conservation Service in Fredericktown are also slated for closing.

U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond argued that steps need to be taken to reduce the agricultural bureaucracy in Washington.

"We can reduce state staff but we must cut the huge agricultural bureaucracy in Washington too," Bond said.

"The people working with farmers in the field are more important than thousands of bureaucrats who shuffle papers and create mischief from Washington," he said.

Agriculture Secretary Edward Madigan said Thursday he would order the closing or consolidation of as many as 1,200 field offices before Jan. 20 in an effort to streamline department operations.

Madigan said he would give members of Congress and farm groups a chance to review his proposals before issuing a final list next week.

The reductions would come from a list of 7,405 offices of the Soil Conservation Service, the Farmers Home Administration, the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service and the federal crop insurance program.

The 7,405 offices are in 3,700 locations nationwide. Under the plan, the number of sites would be reduced to 2,658. Many USDA offices share building space.

"This is not about reducing service to farmers," Madigan said. "It is about being able to improve our services to farmers in a manner that respects the role of the American taxpayer."

The Depression-era network of USDA offices was created when 20 percent of Americans lived on farms and without modern communications. Today, less than 1 percent of the population lives on farms, Madigan said, and modern telecommunications and transportation services mean fewer offices are needed.

According to a copy of the plan obtained by The Associated Press, Georgia would have the most office closings 123. Tennessee would follow with 93 closings, and Texas with 78. Most of the states with the highest number of closings 40 or more are in the Southeast.

In a prepared statement, Emerson said he is "a firm believer in less bureaucracy in Washington and more hands on work at the local and county level.

"Although I do have serious questions and concerns about the criteria on how certain offices and counties were selected, I must add that I do not see that anything is going to be done overnight to implement these recommendations. Rather, I believe a final implementation could easily be several years down the road."

Emerson said he expects there will be extensive field hearings and deliberations in Congress before any final decisions are made. He said that in his position on the House Agriculture Committee, he would be20taking a hard look at the planned closings.

"Additionally, I think it must be stressed that Secretary Madigan has been very careful in making sure that this becomes more of a reorganization, not a reduction in personnel, so that services to the farmer do not suffer.

"That will also be my guide. Anything done at the local and county level must be fair, equitable and sensitive to needs of local farm producers," Emerson said.

Gary Capps, district director of the FmHA office in Sikeston, said he believes the proposed office closings will allow the agency to be more efficient.

Capps' district encompasses Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, and Dunklin counties, and part of Stoddard County.

The FmHA is known as the lender of last resort, helping farmers who do not qualify for loans from commercial banks. The agency also guarantees farm loans made by commercial lenders and provides money for new housing in rural communities.

The restructuring will eliminate some offices nationwide, but it won't eliminate employees, Capps said Friday.

"What they really should call it is office consolidation," he said.

For example, the Perry County FmHA office has a small caseload and "probably is not economically efficient to operate as a single unit," explained Capps.

He said that it would likely be consolidated with the Cape Girardeau County office.

"It's not doing away with anything, except some buildings probably. We are not talking about losing any area that we serve, and we are not talking about losing any employees.

"We are just talking about more centralization, specialization and efficiency."

In addition to the district office in Sikeston, there is a Scott County office of the FmHA as well.

Capps said that the county office in Sikeston and the nearby FmHA office in Charleston are both small operations. He said it probably doesn't make sense to keep both offices open.

"I certainly think it would allow us to give people a lot better service," said Capps.

But he added, "I don't expect anything to happen quickly."

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.