News

Progress in Diversity

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief,Natural Resources Conservation Service
at the National Organization of Professional Hispanic Natural Resources Conservation Service Employees 11th Annual Training Conference,

Sacramento, CA
June 22, 2004

Thank you, Bertha, for that introduction and for inviting me to be a part of this year’s training conference.

You know, we tend to divide the modern history of the NRCS into farm bill segments. The 1985 farm bill is known for Conservation Compliance. The 1996 farm bill is known for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program – EQIP. The 2002 farm bill will be known for its record investment in conservation, its emphasis on working lands, and the Conservation Security Program, among other things.

A little more than a month ago, NRCS celebrated the second anniversary of the 2002 farm bill. We took that opportunity to look back at what we have accomplished during the first two years of the farm bill and what we hope to accomplish during the remaining years. I want to thank you all for everything you have done to make farm bill implementation a success.

Some of you may remember that the week that President Bush signed the farm bill was also my first week with NRCS. So, I too, look at my recent history in terms of the farm bill. I almost have to view my time as Chief as a series of farm bill challenges – many of them met, and many of them remaining. I will talk a bit today about some of the program challenges contained in the farm bill.

Both the farm bill and my time as Chief also involve diversity challenges. I want to take advantage of this farm bill anniversary and this training conference to talk about our diversity challenges – which ones we have met, and which ones we have yet to meet.

This is the third time I have attended the NOPHNRCSE annual training conference. Your conference in Fort Worth two years ago was my first major speech before NRCS employees. I also attended your conference in Des Moines last year.

Your meeting in Fort Worth two years ago came just a week before we issued a new NRCS Civil Rights Policy Statement. That statement set an important goal for our agency and for me as chief: to ensure that all of our “employees, prospective employees, customers, and prospective customers are provided with a positive and professional work environment that offers program delivery services in a fair, equitable, and respectful manner.”

I have repeated that pledge many times over the past two years, at meetings such as this, at meetings of NRCS leaders, and at meetings of our partner organizations. Associate Chief Tom Weber and I – and the entire leadership team – have put a lot of energy into making this civil rights commitment a reality. And we will continue to do so in the future, both in terms of NRCS programs and the NRCS workforce.

Let’s take a look at what we have done to live up to that commitment and what we need to do in the future – with particular emphasis on our Hispanic customers and our Hispanic workforce.

PROGRAMS

As you must know, the 2002 farm bill increased America’s investment in conservation on private lands by more than $17 billion over a 10-year period. That historic investment creates tremendous new opportunities for America’s farmers and ranchers to reach their conservation goals. That investment also creates a tremendous new obligation for us to make the benefits of USDA conservation programs available to all segments of the producer community – including Hispanic farmers and ranchers.

Our ability to offer equity in program administration begins with effective outreach. That is why I have emphasized outreach in my work with employees, NRCS leaders, partner organizations, and producer organizations.

Outreach successes

We have some successes that show that our outreach is working. Last fiscal year, we approved 52 percent of the applications for NRCS programs by Hispanic farmers and ranchers. That contrasts with the 23 percent of applications we approved overall.

Hispanic producers received more than $14 million in cost share payments. That is 1.8 percent of the total. That percentage is pretty good, because Hispanic producers make up only 1.6 percent of the producer population. There really should be more Hispanic producers overall, and that is happening. Hispanic produces are the fastest growing segment of the farm and ranch community. We are ready to help these new Hispanic farmers and ranchers reach their conservation needs as well.

It terms of overall service to producers, we provided service to 14 percent of Hispanic farmers and ranchers last year, which is higher than our service level for non-Hispanic White producers.

The Conservation Communications Staff in headquarters and our State public affairs specialists develop and distribute publications and press releases for NRCS programs in Spanish.

When the farm bill first passed, NRCS participated in 12 major USDA Farm Bill Forums held across the Nation and the U.S. territories designed to provide awareness and reach the historically underserved populations. We also sponsored and coordinated forums held in Mississippi and California, working with Mississippi Valley State University and California Sate University at Fresno.

My own recent outreach activities include the first annual National Tribal SWD Conference in Las Vegas in December, a Tribal College President’s Forum in Washington, D.C., in January, a meeting with United Farmers U.S.A. in Washington, D.C., in February, a meeting with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Georgia in February, the Tribal Outreach Forum and Training Conference in Montana in May, the US-Mexico Border Coalition of RC&D Councils in New Mexico in May, and a Navajo Nation-USDA meeting in Washington, D.C. this month.

Program Changes

The 2002 farm bill included a number of changes designed to increase participation by traditionally underserved groups, including Hispanic producers.

For one thing, the farm bill increased the maximum cost share from 75 percent to up to 90 percent for limited resource farmers and for small and beginning farmers and ranchers. Many Hispanics producers are limited resources farmers or beginning farmers or ranchers.

The bill also eliminated the “buy down” practice where a producer could accept lower percentages of cost share to gain additional points in the application approval process. The buy down put smaller, less affluent producers at a disadvantage.

We have also been working closely with our partner organizations in their efforts to increase the diversity of their boards and committees. Recent partnership diversity meetings include one in Portland, Oregon, in November 2003, and one in Hawaii at the NACD annual meeting in February. We will be meeting again this fall.

Each of the partner organizations has come up with an annual diversity award to recognize the contributions of their members. The awards will be presented at the annual meeting of each organization, or some other suitable occasion. These awards will help stimulate both awareness of diversity issues and accomplishment within the partner organizations.

Farm bill investments get bigger every year, and we still have new programs to administer -- programs like the Conservation Security Program and the Grasslands Reserve Program. So, outreach continues to be important.

In addition to the challenges of making sure our old and new conservation programs are open to all farmers and ranchers and attract their participation, we face a major challenge in our Technical Service Provider process. From the beginning, I encouraged NRCS leaders to make sure that minority providers knew about the Technical Service Provider process. As we developed memorandums of understanding with certifying organizations and training organizations, I have stressed the importance of outreach to minority providers.

We want the TSP process to be open to all, and we want every farmer and rancher to be comfortable that he or she can obtain the services of a provider who is a member of the local community. But, the number of certified minority Technical Service Providers has remained small. In fact, most of the TSP work being done by minorities comes through our agreements with Tribes, State agencies, and others, rather than through contracts with individuals.

I would like to enlist your help in identifying the barriers to minority participation in the TSP process and in encouraging qualified minority providers to sign up as Technical Service Providers.

That is a brief overview of the diversity situation in terms of our programs. Now, I would like to talk a bit about workforce diversity.

WORKFORCE

NRCS is committed to maintaining and improving opportunities for minority employees. That pledge is a part of the Civil Rights Policy Statement, and it is my personal goal.

Training sessions such as the one we are attending today are an important part of making this commitment into a reality. I applaud all of you for being here.

Our workforce has been growing slowly over the last couple of years. We are now above 12,000 employees. Hispanic employment has been growing faster than that. We have increased our employment of Hispanic workers by more than 60 in the last year and a half. That raises our percentage of Hispanic employees from 3.6 percent to 4.3 percent.

Recruiting Initiatives

This increase has not been an accident. It has taken a lot of hard work by a lot of people and a number of innovative programs. I want to thank all of our Hispanic Employment Program Managers and HEP Advisory Council members around the country for everything they do to promote diversity in our workforce. Among other things, we provide job opportunity information in Spanish, open our vacancies to all sources, and advertise them for 30 days to encourage a wide range of applicants.

Our National Recruitment Strategy is designed to address under representation in the workforce. This strategy includes such initiatives as the USDA Career Intern Program, the NRCS Administrative and Information Technology Trainee Program, the Presidential Management Intern Program, and various student employment initiatives and other internships. We lead all USDA agencies in hiring under the Career Intern Program – including hiring several Hispanic employees.

Our Student Employment Policy is intended to attract qualified applicants from underrepresented groups to fill the professional, technical and administrative gaps we expect to have over the next 5 to 10 years.

This spring, we interviewed 24 Hispanic students and made 16 job offers at the National Hispanic Energy and Environmental Council meeting in Albuquerque.

Last year, NRCS hired more than 700 students for summer jobs. Nearly 60 of those were Hispanic students. That is about 8 percent, nearly double the percentage of Hispanic employees we now have in our workforce.

We have seven students in the Hispanic Public Service Scholars (PSS) Program.

We are also making progress in the management ranks. We have Jose Acevedo as the Deputy Chief for Programs. During FY 2003, NRCS hired the first female Hispanic State Conservationist in the history of the agency. This year we named the second, as well as another male Hispanic State Conservationist. And we recently selected one female and two male Hispanic Deputy State Conservationists.

Retention Issues

In addition to recruiting for diversity, we also have to look closely at retaining the minority employees we already have. We have to be especially alert to any adverse affects any of our management actions might have on the diversity of our workforce.

Two such management actions in recent months have been competitive sourcing and the NRCS reorganization. In both cases, we have done impact studies to make sure the effects of our actions are evenly distributed across our workforce and do not fall disproportionately on minority employees.

Our competitive sourcing studies in 2003 involved just over 1,200 positions. All but six of the positions studied last year remained with the NRCS, and we were able to offer reassignment to the six employees who held those positions. These particular positions were occupied by women, including one Black woman and one Hispanic woman.

During the studies, the NRCS State office had a hiring freeze on all the studied positions, which helped create vacancies for any employees whose studies indicated the work should be done in the private sector. In addition, the competitive sourcing process also provides for the possibility of employees accepting jobs with the private sector firm that takes over the work. One of the six employees did accept a job with the contractor.

So we do have tools at our disposal to help employees who are affected by outsourcing – including minority employees.

We have also adopted a number of steps to mitigate any adverse impacts coming out of the NRCS reorganization. Most importantly, we are offering a position at the same grade with similar responsibilities to each affected employee. Beyond that, we authorized pay retention for affected employees who voluntarily accepted lower grade vacant positions in the States where they were assigned at the time of the reorganization. We also got approval from the Office of Personnel Management to offer early retirement for affected employees. In addition, we had a hiring freeze on filling Regional Office, Institute, and Cooperating Scientist positions to create flexibility in placing affected employees.

All of these procedures are designed to limit the impact of the reorganization on our workforce, including minority employees.

Complaints Processing

We have also made a change in the process for handling discrimination complaints that is helping us handle complaints in a timely manner. Last fall, the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at USDA transferred the investigation process for discrimination complaints to NRCS, which will help us comply with the 180-day requirement for completing investigations.

The new process is working. Since the change, we have completed our investigations in an average of 130 days.

CONCLUSION

I hope you agree that we are making pretty good progress both in terms with serving a diverse customer base and in maintaining and improving our workforce diversity.

My desire for you is that you continue your dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work. Your hard work on behalf of customer service and conservation programs is an important part of helping us meet the needs of all producers, including those in underserved segments of the agriculture industry. Your dedication to self improvement, as evidenced by your attendance at this week’s training conference, is your personal ticket to meeting your individual potential.

I pledge to you that I will continue to do everything I can to see that our Agency has the best possible program delivery system and the best trained and equipped workforce, and that we will achieve these goals in ways that live up to our Agency’s Civil Rights Policy Statement.

Thank you.