Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 16, 1993 TAG: 9301160146
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BOUCHER DOESN'T WANT U.S. AGRICULTURE OFFICES CLOSED
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, called the U.S. Department of Agriculture's proposal to close some county offices in Southwest Virginia "premature," and has called for further study of the proposal.Boucher notified Agriculture Secretary Edward Madigan of his position in a letter this week.
"Southwest Virginia farmers, as well as many other small property owners and rural home buyers, rely heavily on the services provided by these agencies," Boucher wrote.
The USDA has circulated a draft proposal to close 1,200 field offices nationwide. Fifty-five offices of 109 USDA offices in Virginia have been proposed for closing, including 35 Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service offices; 17 Soil Conservation Service offices; and three Farmers Home Administration offices.
In Boucher's Ninth District, the department has tentatively proposed closing SCS offices in Pulaski and Floyd counties; FmHA offices in Dickenson and Pulaski counties; and ASCS offices in Floyd, Wise, Bland, Grayson and Pulaski counties.
Sixth District Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, has not taken a position on the proposal yet. Some 6th District offices have also been proposed for closing.
Goodlatte, who took former 6th District Rep. Jim Olin's place on the House Agriculture Committee, has not been fully educated on the issue yet, administrative assistant Tim Phillips said. But Phillips said Goodlatte is interested in maintaining the integrity of the USDA field system in his district and Virginia.
A spokesman for the USDA stressed this week that Madigan had not made a final decision on what offices would be closed. That list will not be released until next week.
Congress must approve any proposal to close the field offices.
In the past 20 years, 10 separate studies by the Department of Agriculture, the General Accounting Office, and the Grace Commission have examined the USDA's field structure.
The department's system of county offices was established during Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, when bad roads and poor communications posed a problem for farmers.
Roads and communications are much better in most places now and farming has decreased in importance in many communities.
For instance, a 1991 GAO study found that the ASCS office in coalfield county of Wise - where there is little commercial farming, was spending $2.30 on administrative overhead for every $1 in benefits it was distributing to farmers.
Acknowledging the GAO study showing high operating costs in some offices compared with the benefits, Boucher said that it might eventually be advisable to consolidate some USDA county offices.
But, he said, the offices shouldn't be closed until farmers are heard from and it's determined whether the offices provide benefits, such as environmental protection, that can't be measured in dollars.
The Bush administration shouldn't rush to close the offices in its final days, Boucher said. "The new administration, in my view, should make the decision."
Phillips said Goodlatte, too, had some concerns about whether the outgoing administration should be the one making the proposal about the future of the offices.
Boucher said he had talked with many farmers across Southwest Virginia about the USDA's proposal. The closing of local offices would cause a great deal of inconvenience for farmers and they might decide not to use the USDA's services at all rather than travel to another county to apply for them, he said.
Many of the services are related to promotion of better farming practices that help conserve topsoil, Boucher said.
Virginia is among the states with the most offices on the preliminary list for closure. At the top of the list is Georgia with 95; Texas, 75; Tennessee, 67; Virginia, 55; West Virginia and North Carolina, 51 each; and Mississippi, 50.