Report Recommends Shorter Time Frames for Handling USDA Civil Rights Complaints

WASHINGTON — A report released by the Office of the Inspector General regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s oversight of civil rights complaints provides 21 recommendations that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights should take to try to better enforce complaints within shorter time frames.

A hearing was held Tuesday by the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight and Department Operations on the 21 recommendations made in the report.

“The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights has accepted the Office of the Inspector General’s 21 recommendations and OIG has reached a management decision on all of the recommendations. OASCR will implement them within the prescribed timeframes,” said a representative of the OASCR, in an email to The Well News.

OASCR oversees the handling of complaints within the department with respect to two program areas, Food and Nutrition Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The report, published in September 2021, examines 28 of the 911 complaints that OASCR closed between Oct. 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019. Of the complaints sampled, more than 85% took longer than 180 days to process. 

In fiscal year 2019, it took about 799 days on average, or more than two years, to process complaints. 

The report findings show that OASCR did not adequately support or process half of the final agency decisions sampled by OIG. 

“When we did our work, and we talked with the employees of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, they identified insufficient resources as a key reason for the delays, insufficient staff resources, the need for a really good IT system, and I think that’s probably a good place to start in terms of addressing the issues,” said Phyllis Fong, inspector general of the USDA Office of Inspector General, during the hearing.

Fong attempted to explain to the committee why processing times for complaints had steadily increased from 571 days in 2017 to 799 days in 2019.

“There is no federal regulation that sets out an appropriate time frame for program complaints, the justice department just says you have to do it in a prompt way,” said Fong.

“Our recommendation to OASCR is that they should figure out, you know, do an assessment, perhaps do some benchmarking, and think about what an appropriate time frame might be and then be very clear about communicating that to the public, as well as to their own people. We’ve seen the timeframes expand over the years from 180 days until where it currently is, but there’s got to be a standard that would be appropriate that they can adopt and hold themselves to,” said Fong. 

Under the Trump Administration, the report shows that the USDA regressed in terms of timeliness of its civil rights complaint processing due to substantial budget cuts that were made and an office realignment that occurred in 2018. 

As a result, from 2016-2020, OASCR lost a substantial portion of the workforce. To address that loss, several requests have been made in the fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill which address the need for more auditors and investigators.

The proposed request of $11 billion dollars would, among other things, increase staffing in the department from 128 to 191 employees, and replace the current civil rights enterprise system for processing complaints.

“If, in fact, they [OASCR] receive that appropriation and are able to hire an additional 60 plus people, that should make a significant difference in their ability to investigate and adjudicate claims…Planning to replace their CRES system sounds like a tremendous step forward,” said Fong. 

The report also found that the complaint process has fallen short of handling claims and processes for various programs that serve underserved communities.

“The USDA’s history of discriminatory actions against employees and program participants, particularly socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, is well documented. It’s critical that USDA employees and participants in USDA programs have confidence in the department’s ability to properly resolve complaints and in a timely manner,”  said Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., during the hearing. 

Rep. Gregorio Camacho Sablan, who represents the Northern Mariana Islands, also questioned Fong during the hearing about whether civil rights complaints were even examined in U.S. territories.

“We are so isolated and so removed, we get looked over so many times,” said Sablan.

Alexa can be reached at [email protected]