Dick Lugar: “I underline this new provision, Madam President, because the fact is that, in the past, the allegation was made by this…”

“I underline this new provision, Madam President, because the fact is that, in the past, the allegation was made by this Senator and others that USDA was seemingly composed of 43 separate empires, loosely held together under a Secretary of Agriculture, who was nominally in control. At the local level, farmers frequently had to go to different locations for various services. In subsequent years, many of the offices were co-located, which means they were in the same building, in a particular county seat or site, but still insulated by, really, a firewall in terms of cooperation--separate computers, receptionists, telephones, and separate forms and procedures. Therefore, the average farmer coming into this situation still had to deal with very separate circumstances at much loss of time and bureaucratic hassle. The whole quest has been to co-locate and then to try to reduce the walls and bring compatibility of function. A large stride, we hope, is being made at the top, with the superstructure now reduced from 43 to 28 agencies.”