WASHINGTON -- Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan plans to continue managing the Agriculture Department budget, even though a reorganization has placed USDA's budget office that used to report to her under the assistant secretary for administration.
"I will be running the budget process at USDA," Merrigan said in an interview.
Merrigan noted that she had presented USDA's fiscal year 2011 budget to the Office of Management and Budget and said she also will make the presentations of future years' budgets. The deputy agriculture secretary traditionally has been in charge of development of the budget and been the official to whom the budget officer reports.
Reorganization
Since the reorganization, which went into effect Oct. 1, farm lobbyists have expressed alarm that if an official below the level of deputy secretary made the presentations, USDA would be in a disadvantaged position compared with other agencies. One former USDA official said OMB officials always ask how they can cut farm subsidies, particularly cotton subsidies, and that only a deputy secretary or the secretary himself would be able to defend them against budget officials looking for programs to cut to lower the deficit or to be spent elsewhere.
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Merrigan acknowledged that she has received numerous calls from congressional offices expressing concern. Merrigan said she is meeting with USDA budget analysts weekly and that the meeting also includes Chief Financial Officer Evan Segal, a Senate-confirmed appointee. The departmental management reorganization shows that the Office of Budget and Program Analysis will report to Segal, who reports to Assistant Secretary for Administration Pearlie Reed.
But USDA budget officer Scott Steele said in a telephone interview he is expecting to maintain "traditional communications channels and working relationships important to carry out budget processes and policy."
The reorganization also shows that Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Joe Leonard Jr. will report to Reed rather than to the secretary. A spokeswoman for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that the Office of Civil Rights was placed under Reed so that civil rights could be better integrated with other human resources and employment offices that also have been placed under Reed. African-American, Indian, Hispanic and women farmers all have cases pending against USDA and there also is a backlog of employee complaints.
Position upgrade
Vilsack said in February that he wanted to upgrade the position of assistant secretary for administration to the level of undersecretary in part to give the administration's initiative to resolve USDA's longstanding civil rights problems more stature. But the spokeswoman said no action has been taken on that proposal.
A USDA source said Vilsack's decision to move more offices under the assistant secretary for administration came from his organizational experience as governor of Iowa.
