NRCS, Black History, and Opportunities

Welcoming Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief Natural Resources Conservation Service at the NRCS Black History Month Program

Washington, D.C.
February 24, 2005

Thank you, Thaddeus for that introduction. And thank you to Andrew Johnson for inviting me to be a part of this year’s program.

Welcome to NRCS’ Black History Month Program. The theme for this year’s Black History Month is the Niagara Movement 100th Anniversary -- 1905-2005.

As many of you may know, I grew up in rural Gann Valley, South Dakota, and in that place and time, black history was not emphasized in any way other than the community folklore regarding the black horse soldiers. So, the Niagara Movement is something I have been learning about this year.

Today we will be hearing about the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II from Lieutenant Colonel Leo Gray, who is both one of these famous fighters and a former USDA employee.

Immediately following today’s program, I am going on very exciting trip – one where I will learn more about several important aspects of black history, including the Tuskegee Airmen. I’m going to Tuskegee University in Alabama. I am going to see first-hand one of the P-51 Mustang fighters that the Tuskegee Airmen used during the war.

I also hope to get a better feel for the work of Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and others who devoted their lives to Tuskegee and the advancement of African Americans and the betterment of society.

As you must know, the last 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 African American farmers and ranchers.



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

Outreach successes
We have some successes that show that our outreach is working. For example, last fiscal year, we approved 54 percent of the applications for NRCS programs by African American farmers and ranchers. That contrasts with the 28 percent of applications we approved overall. African American producers received nearly $7.3 million in cost share payments. That is 1 percent of the total cost share dollars which is line with African American producers who make up 1 percent of the producer population. We must always be ready to help all minority farmers and ranchers reach their conservation needs. In terms of overall service to producers, African American producers are not utilizing NRCS as much as I would like to see. Only 12 percent of these producers received our services, which is 3 percentage points lower than the benchmark rate for White males.

We need to look for new ways to reach out to African American producers and get them to use our services. 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. Programs 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 slowly growing over the last couple of years. We have seen the number of African American employees increasing as well. This increase took a lot of hard work by a lot of people and a number of innovative programs. I want to thank all of our African American Employment Program Managers around the country for everything they do to promote diversity in our workforce. Among other things, we 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 did pretty well in our hiring of minority students last summer. We hired 5 African American students, which was nearly 8 percent of our student hires – which is higher than the 7.9 percent of African American employees in our present workforce.

We lead all USDA agencies in hiring under the Career Intern Program. Overall, half of our interns have been women, minorities, or people with disabilities. At any time, we have about 350 participants in the Career Intern Program. 10 percent are African Americans which is also higher than the percentage of African American employees in our present workforce.

We have also made a change in the process for handling discrimination complaints that is helping us handle complaints in a timely manner. A little over a year ago, Assistant Secretary Parker 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
This farm bill has presented us with a series of challenges – more specifically our diversity challenges – ones we have met, and ones that we have yet to meet. Our current NRCS Civil Rights Policy Statement is almost as old as the farm bill. 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 over the past months,
• at special emphasis programs such as this,
• at meetings of NRCS leaders, and
• at meetings of our partner organizations.
The entire NRCS 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.

I pledge to you that we will continue to do everything we 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.

Again, let me welcome you all to today’s NRCS Black History Month Program. I’m sure you are all eager to hear from Lieutenant Colonel Leo Gray.

Thank you.