Russ Feingold: “as a member of the Agriculture Committee, I rise in support of S. 1970, the USDA reorganization bill. I applaud Chairman…”

“as a member of the Agriculture Committee, I rise in support of S. 1970, the USDA reorganization bill. I applaud Chairman Leahy and Senator Lugar for their leadership in this area and for working so diligently to reach consensus in the committee and in bringing this bill to the floor so quickly. I also commend the Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Espy, for taking the initiative to propose such a massive and comprehensive reorganization. This reorganization is expected to save $2.3 billion over the next 5 years. That is a significant level of savings that can be achieved simply by making changes that make sense. They make sense for the farmer, the consumer and the taxpayers who foot the bill. When the Agriculture Committee considered this legislation, there were many contentious issues associated with this reorganization. There was, however, virtually unanimous agreement that we needed to reorganize the Department so that its structure more accurately reflected the mission and functions of USDA. We also needed to consolidate agencies that had been created and expanded since the USDA was created so many years ago. The structure of agriculture has changed greatly since USDA was created in 1862 with dramatically fewer farmers producing more food on less land. As such, USDA's traditional methods for providing services need revamping and the very large number of field offices must be reduced while services should be provided in a more efficient manner.”