PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27, 2005
CONTACT: 308-238-0375

Kleeb Opposes Closure of FSA Offices; Calls for Modernization.

Dunning, NE - Scott Kleeb, congressional candidate for the 3rd District, strongly urged today that USDA officials in Washington reconsider plans to shutter more than 20 local Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices in Central and Western Nebraska.

While the final list of closings has yet to be determined, Nebraska counties that could lose their FSA offices include Kimball, Red Willow, Webster, and Boyd counties, among three dozen others under consideration.

"As globalization puts growing competitive pressures on Nebraska farmers and ranchers, we need to strengthen and update our local FSA offices, not shut them down," Kleeb said. "These offices have supported agricultural innovation in Nebraska's rural communities since the Great Depression. That support is as vital today as it ever was."

FSA offices are widely considered to be the only local point of contact between farmers, ranchers and the USDA. The USDA plan, announced Friday, would close 713 of the 2,351 FSA offices nationwide.

"The USDA is calling this plan ‘FSA Tomorrow,'" Kleeb said. "This is a disturbing indication that USDA wants to focus the bulk of its resources on supporting large, corporate farming enterprises. This is not only unfair, it is economically short-sighted.

"Modernized FSA offices at the county-level could be a powerful tool in helping our farmers take advantage of new opportunities in agriculture," Kleeb added. "They could and should play a central role in keeping Nebraska's rural economy adaptive, competitive and strong."

During the severe drought of 2002, certain counties were hit harder than others and USDA emergency measures - low-interest loans, measures to offset the costs of proscribed grazing, and emergency water resources for stressed livestock - were administered on a country-by-county basis, Kleeb observed.

"As agriculture continues to diversify in the years ahead, and as variations in weather patterns grow more dramatic, the need for county-level offices that can cater their supports to local developments will only increase," he said.