GFB members and FSA officials discuss office closings

FSA Associate Administrator for Programs Glen Keppy discusses the proposal to close FSA offices with GFB members.

While in Washington, Georgia Farm Bureau members had a chance to discuss the proposal to close 19 Farm Service Agency offices across Georgia with FSA Associate Administrator for Programs Glen Keppy and FSA Deputy Administrator for Field Offices Steve Connelly.

Both officials cited a lack of financial resources as being the main factor behind the need to consolidate offices along with a desire to improve the agency’s efficiency and offer better customer service to farmers.

“The reality is we have fewer resources to administer your programs, and I don’t think we want to cut into the funding for your programs to administer the programs,” Connelly said. “We’re going to have to make some tough business decisions. We don’t have the resources to operate the county office structure that we currently have.”

Keppy, a former Iowa hog producer, told the group he understands what it is like to stand on the other side of the FSA counter as a farmer and understands their desire to keep their county offices open. However, he encouraged the GFB group to “look at the big picture and get over the ‘not in my backyard’ attitude because someone is going to have to do it.”

“Every state has different circumstances, so that’s why we’re relying on each state to develop a plan tailored for their state,” Keppy said. “All states are working on a restructuring plan. There’s no timetable for states to submit their plans, but we’d like to see all states submit their plans by the end of the year.”

GFB President Zippy Duvall told the officials that county commissioners of several counties where FSA offices are targeted for closure have offered to cover the office expenses to keep the FSA office in their county and asked why this was not being considered.

GFB members talk to FSA Deputy Administrator for Field Offices Steve Connelly (second from left) regarding FSA programs and proposed office closings.

“It’s great to get offers from counties, but the real issue is we need to get staff located to where the core of the workload for our programs is,” Connelly said. He said that nationwide, the FSA has 3,000 fewer staff than it needs to fully staff its field offices.

Gordon County Farm Bureau member Sam Payne said meeting with Keppy and Connelly was a good opportunity to make the case for his office straight to the guys who will make the final decision on Georgia’s FSA restructuring plan.
“I don’t disagree that money is tight, but I think you need to look at the distance farmers who are served by our office will have to travel if their county is relocated to another office,” Gordon County Farm Bureau member Sam Payne said in reference to the proposal to close the multi-county FSA office in Calhoun. “If they close our office you’ll have to drive to either almost the Alabama border or the North Carolina border to get service, when we’re located right in the center of northwest Georgia.”

Keppy and Connelly told the GFB members to send their comments about Georgia’s proposed office closings to Georgia’s FSA Executive Director Susan Holmes and Committee Chairman Dr. Harry Kemp and duplicate copies to them.

On June 15, Georgia Farm Service Agency Executive Director Susan Holmes told GFB media the Georgia FSA Committee has submitted its proposal to the federal FSA office to close the 19 offices and consolidate them with existing offices. She said the Georgia FSA Committee expects the federal FSA office to notify them by mid-July with an approval or rejection of the restructuring proposal.

Connelly told GFB members that Congress passed legislation in’06 regarding FSA office restructuring that requires FSA to notify Congress of any proposed office closings and wait 120 days before closing an office.
The following is a list of the 19 FSA offices proposed for closure: Baker, Bleckley, Brantley, Coweta, Dougherty, Evans, Gordon, Greene, Habersham, Henry, Houston, Johnson, Lanier, Seminole, Taylor, Walker, Ware and Wheeler. The offices in Irwin and Ben Hill counties opted to be combined.