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Show USDA Reorganization PANGUITCH The U.S. Department of Agriculture's reorganization reor-ganization efforts under the Clinton Administration will continue as the farm lending programs of the former Utah Farmers Home Administration Admin-istration were transferred to the Utah Consolidated Farm Service Agency earlier this month. The announcement of the transfer of the programs was made by Jim Humclicek, State Executive Director of the Consolidated Farm Service Agency (formerly the Agriculture Agri-culture Stabilization and Conservation Con-servation Service) and Jim Harvey, State Director of the Rural Economic Eco-nomic and Community Development Develop-ment (formerly the Farmers Home Administration). Nationwide, the USDA is in the process of closing or consolidating nearly one-third of its 3,700 field locations and establishing 2,535 USDA service centers where USr customers will receive one-stop service. The largest reorganization in USDA's history began last year when USDA reduced the number of agencies from 43 to 29, and began cutting staff by 13,000 employees. These reorganization initiatives will save U.S. taxpayers over $4 billion. bil-lion. The transfer of the farm lending programs reflect President Clinton's effort to streamline government and make it work better. For more than 50 years, farmers who could not obtain credit from commercial lenders len-ders used the former Farmers Home Administration's farmer program loans to purchase and operate farms, while the former Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service Ser-vice administered the farm programs. pro-grams. As a result of the transfer of the farm lending programs, all farm programs will now be administered admin-istered by one agency, the Consolidated Consol-idated Farm Service Agency. The Rural Economic and Com-munity Com-munity Development agency will continue to administer all rural business development programs, rural telecommunication, electricity, electri-city, water and waste water disposal programs, and rural housing programs. pro-grams. These reorganization efforts have been made to streamline the way USDA does business, to cut out needless paperwork, to improve services to Utah producers, and to save taxpayers money, said Brad Reeve. "Ultimately, when a Utah farmer steps into our USDA service centers, all of their needs will be taken care of quickly, and they will be able to get back to what they like doing the most, and that is farming." |