NRCS and NACD, Working Together for Conservation

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief,
Natural Resources Conservation Service
at the National Association of Conservation Districts Board of Directors Meeting
Lisle, IL

October 7, 2002

Thank you, Read, and good morning. It is a pleasure to be here this morning. I was glad to get a chance to meet many of you last night at the reception. Today, I want to talk with you about the future of conservation on America’s private lands.

Read and Ernie gave me a short list of topics they felt you would be interested in discussing today, and I will address those in a minute. But first, I want to talk about a couple of things that were not on their list.

But first, since this is my first time talking with many of you, I would like to tell you a bit about myself. First, and foremost, I am a rancher and farmer. I have a diversified grain and cattle operation in South Dakota, my native state. We run a conservation-minded operation, with no-till and rest rotation grazing systems. My father impressed on me that we may be the land owners, but we are really just the stewards of the land. That is how I have run my operation.

I am also a public policy person. I served on Majority Leader Bob Dole’s staff, focusing on the development of the conservation title of the 1996 farm bill. I also worked as a legislative assistant to Rep. Fred Grandy of Iowa and Sen. James Abdnor of South Dakota. Between those jobs, I worked for the National Association of Wheat Growers. And, until May when I became Chief, for the National Corn Growers Association, as vice president for public policy.

Next, I would like to recognize you all for a couple of very important things.

First is your work toward creating the new farm bill. I know that USDA Deputy Under Secretary Mack Gray thanked NACD at your annual meeting in Reno on behalf of the Department of Agriculture. The farm bill was still being debated at that time, but your influence was clear in the various versions under consideration.

Now that the farm bill is law, I want to thank you again for all your efforts in getting a good farm bill. Not just a good bill, but a bill that provides unprecedented support for conservation on working lands.

Next, I would like to recognize your work toward implementing the new farm bill. When I was lobbying, I often told my staff that passing the legislation was the easy part. Now comes the hard, often thankless work that is even more important – implementation. And you have been working hard in the five months since the farm bill became law to make sure the vision contained in the bill becomes a reality.

Now, I’ll say a few words about the topics that Ernie and Read gave me. As I was working on my notes last night, I realized these topics leave me sounding pretty bureaucratic. So, we will leave some time at the end to talk frankly about these, and any other items you are interested in.


The Future Working Relationship
With Conservation Districts

First, Read and Ernie asked me to talk a bit about my vision for the future working relationship with conservation districts. The base line is that the working relationship between NRCS and the conservation districts is fundamental to successful conservation efforts on farms and ranches throughout the country. I have every intention of building upon that strong foundation. My entire team and I will be ready and willing to work with both NACD and state leadership.

The sheer size of the new farm bill presents both opportunities and challenges to our relationship.

In terms of opportunities, NRCS and all of its partners in conservation have a chance to put a tremendous amount of Money to work on the land in the cause of conservation – an opportunity that we must never lose sight of in the swirl of bureaucratic controversy over FTE’s and TA and the rest of the alphabet soup of program minutia.

There is so much to do in implementing the farm bill that there will be plenty of work for all of us. The technical service provider process is one important part of getting that work done. It encourages NACD and other organizations to move beyond the present level of technical assistance. But, I’ll talk about that in more detail in a minute.

There is also much to do for both NRCS and NACD in making America’s farmers and ranchers aware of their opportunities under the new farm bill. NACD has been playing an important part in this promotion and communication effort. Getting our conservation story out is really important. I thought we’d been doing a pretty good job until I went out to Colorado and met a producer who asked me why we weren’t letting producers know about the farm bill. I guess there will always be some people who don’t get the message, but our job, working together, is get that number as close to zero as possible. Your national conference on Farm Bill Conservation Opportunities in St. Louis next month will be a big contribution.

There is also much to do in writing the rules that will guide implementation of the farm bill.
Our philosophy in rule making is to keep the rules simple and leave as much decision making as possible to local leaders such as you. Deputy Secretary Moseley calls this approach “Lean and Local.” The “Lean and Local” philosophy in the rules will increase the role of districts in farm bill implementation.

The rule writing itself will provide an important opportunity both for the districts and of the national NACD in making sure we get rules that work. These are a few of the opportunities presented by the new farm bill.


In terms of challenges, I can sum them up in one word: Accountability.

Enactment of the farm bill demonstrates the commitment of the Administration, Congress, and the American people to the cause of conservation on working agricultural lands. The investment in conservation represented by this farm bill is unprecedented in the history of farm bills. But along with that investment comes an even greater expectation of accountability.

The Department of Agriculture is charged with investing the farm bill money wisely. We will have to demonstrate to the Administration, Congress, and ultimately to the people, that we are getting measurable results from their investment.

All of our existing partners, and many new partners, will have a role to play. Each partner will assume a portion of the burden of accountability. Ultimately, the resources represented by the farm bill will flow through those partners who can best demonstrate results.

The trend toward increased accountability in government is not new, but it is growing. We in conservation are not singled out. Increasingly, NRCS is called on to document and prove what we accomplish with the resources we receive -- whether we are doing the work ourselves or through partners or, now, technical service providers.

We, and all of our partners, including conservation districts, will increasingly be judged by our accomplishments. Our role in conservation will grow or shrink in proportion to our ability to demonstrate results.

As you know, conservation takes years, and often decades, to have an impact on the land. Some of our best work involves building relationships: going belly to belly with a landowner and building a long-term conservation plan.

These are tough and unique challenges, but they are challenges we all face in implementing the farm bill -- in every county and state and at the national level. As a longstanding partner, conservation districts are well positioned to meet this challenge, but it will take an active effort to demonstrate accountability at all levels.


Technical Assistance

The second issue Read and Ernie asked me to address is funding for technical assistance. I know you have been frustrated over the mechanism for funding technical assistance and that you have been working hard to advocate full funding of programs. NACD and NRCS have always been in agreement that technical assistance is the backbone of conservation on private lands.

I have not heard anyone disagree with that position. American’s farmers and ranchers certainly agree -- placing high confidence and trust in the technical assistance they receive.

We know that the increased workload under the new farm bill, coupled with the specific requirement that NRCS implement a process for using technical service providers, means changes in the delivery of technical assistance.

NRCS does not have enough staff to implement discretionary and mandatory programs. Additionally, for planning purposes you can assume that we will not be able to hire additional staff. NRCS must rely on conservation partners, technical service providers, and private industry to help implement the farm bill.

Technical service providers cost money, and exactly where that money will come from over the life of the farm bill is under discussion between the Administration and Congress. You know the issues:

• Conservation Operations funds do not cover all the TA needed by the agency.

• Programs funds do not cover all the TA needed to implement the programs.

• There is a compounding effect of contracts: they carry work over from one year to the next for the life of the contract.

• It is illegal to augment appropriated funds. Funds from one program can’t be used to implement another program.

Fortunately, OMB, Congress, and the Secretary of Agriculture agree that NRCS needs the full costs of programs. In addition, Congress has stated that the full cost of programs is to be utilized in apportionments by OMB.

The issue is whether the funds, or some portion of the funds, should come from the Conservation Operations account or from the CCC Program Funds. There is not enough TA money to implement the farm bill in either account alone.

It will take a while for these issues to be resolved. Until then, we will implement the Farm Bill as best we can within the existing parameters, and we will continue to work with Congress and OMB to obtain the full cost of programs. Once the full cost of programs is obtained, then we can fully implement our plans to engage conservation partners, technical service providers, and others.


Technical Service Providers

The third topic Read and Ernie asked me to address is our progress toward implementing the technical service provider process. The short answer is that we hope to have the process in place by the middle of the month (October) with publication of an interim final rule in the Federal Register.

We think the rule will call for a 90-day comment period, during which we will find out what needs to be changed in the process. And, of course, the rule is already based on input from organizations like NACD and input from the listening sessions we held around the country.

As you are well aware, technical service providers are not new, and we are continuing to use existing procedures to work with our partners in providing technical assistance. But technical service providers will play wider, more extensive role than any of us are used to.

In creating the technical service provider process, we are actually creating a whole new industry of technical service providers out there. This new industry will draw from the private sector, non-profit groups, and government agencies to get the job done. I’m sure most conservation districts will want to perform additional technical assistance and, by working with their State conservationists, will help fill that need.

The farm bill simply provides too much opportunity for NRCS to do all the additional work.

I want to alert you to an event next month related to technical service providers. The Department of Agriculture will be hosting a technical service provider input session to include participants in Washington, D.C., with satellite downlinks nationwide and a web broadcast.

I hope you will all be able to attend, either in person or electronically. The session will be part of the public input process for the new rule.


NRCS Agenda

One other thing I wanted to let you know about today is the NRCS priorities for the coming year. We will be working on four main priorities: First, of course, is implementing the farm bill. Second, is implementing the President’s management initiatives. These include

• Strategic Management of Human Capital
• Competitive Sourcing
• Improved Financial Performance
• Expanding e-Government,
• And Budget and Program Integration.

Third is increasing outreach activities and workforce diversity.

And fourth is strengthening our technical delivery system.

These priorities will be reflected in our 2003 budget decisions, business plans, accountability systems, and even in the individual performance plans of our employees and leaders. You can see that the things I’ve talked about today fit cleanly within these priorities.

Conclusion

Before I talk too long, let me say that I think the next few years promise to be the next golden age of conservation on America’s working lands.

We can’t take anything away from what our fathers and mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers, did for conservation during the dust bowl and subsequent years. They accomplished great things. But the farm bill gives us a chance to accomplish great things, too.

I look forward to working with NACD to make the next golden age of conservation a reality.

Thank you.