A New Civil Rights Era for USDA

In an April 21, 2009 memorandum to all USDA employees, Secretary Vilsack announced a new civil rights era for USDA. Secretary Vilsack wrote "As you know, civil rights is one of my top priorities. In the Departmental complaint system alone, more than 14,000 complaints have been filed since the year 2000. Approximately 3,000 of these complaints remain to be processed, and questions continue to be raised about USDA's handling of complaints. I have said many times that I intend to take definitive action to improve USDA's record on civil rights and to move USDA into a new era as a model employer and premier service provider. To be successful, all USDA employees must be committed to making USDA a model in the Federal Government for respecting the civil rights of its employees and constituents. As Secretary, I will accept nothing less."

Secretary Vilsack's memorandum outlines fourteen initial steps to change the direction of Equal Employment Opportunity, civil rights, and program delivery in USDA by designing a comprehensive approach to ensure fair treatment of all employees and applicants and improve our program delivery to every person entitled to our varied services. Read the Secretary's memorandum for more information on the actions to be implemented immediately or that are already underway.

• Memorandum: A New Civil Rights Era for USDA
  (HTML)(PDF 184KB )
• Secretary Vilsack's Civil Rights Policy Statement
  (HTML) (PDF 684 KB)

Last Modified: 01/26/2010