FAS: Ag trade programs should stay at USDA
Agricultural trade programs should not be moved from USDA to a proposed combined trade agency the Obama administration is considering, the acting administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service said today, noting that she has so advised the White House Office of Management and Budget.
At a House Agriculture Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee hearing on foreign agriculture and food aid programs, Suzanne Heinen, a career Foreign Service officer who is serving as acting administrator, said that as she examined programs to advise OMB, she became “more and more convinced of having the Department of Agriculture maintain this role.”
Heinen noted that OMB is concerned about efficiencies in managing trade programs, but that there are good reasons for keeping the program at USDA.
Reporting from FAS officers overseas is vital to USDA’s collection of baseline agricultural statistics, she said, while USDA’s trade promotion programs are tied to the Commodity Credit Corporation, which the department runs.
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who asked Heinen about the future location of the trade programs, said he was pleased with her views, adding, “If you’re not from the farm, you don’t understand agriculture.”
At a House Agriculture Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee hearing on foreign agriculture and food aid programs, Suzanne Heinen, a career Foreign Service officer who is serving as acting administrator, said that as she examined programs to advise OMB, she became “more and more convinced of having the Department of Agriculture maintain this role.”
Heinen noted that OMB is concerned about efficiencies in managing trade programs, but that there are good reasons for keeping the program at USDA.
Reporting from FAS officers overseas is vital to USDA’s collection of baseline agricultural statistics, she said, while USDA’s trade promotion programs are tied to the Commodity Credit Corporation, which the department runs.
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who asked Heinen about the future location of the trade programs, said he was pleased with her views, adding, “If you’re not from the farm, you don’t understand agriculture.”
