Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson today asked that the farming community join him in attempting to turn back proposals by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to close down Farm Service Agency offices throughout the district, state and country.

Rep. Johnson promised to fight the proposal with all the resources available to his office.

“This proposal is ill-advised and ill-conceived and obviously occurred with little consultation within the farming community,” said Rep. Johnson, R-Ill. “Within the last week in my travels around the 15th Congressional District, the possible closing of these offices is practically all I have heard about.

“To say people are upset is an understatement. FSA offices are institutions in these communities, institutions that are providing vital services helping farmers and others in the related agricultural industries wade through the bureaucracy of loan payments, drought and disaster assistance and other farm programs,” Rep. Johnson said. “This is yet another example of how out of touch Washington, D.C. is with life in rural America and I pledge to oppose this plan at every level.”

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns proposed last week that under the FSA Tomorrow plan, some 665 of the FSA’s 2,353 county offices be closed. Within Illinois, 26 offices are proposed to be consolidated, including offices in nine counties within the 15th District.

Rep. Johnson, the only member of the House Agriculture Committee from Illinois, wrote Sec. Johanns last week to express his displeasure with the plan and seek further review.

Rep. Johnson also is a signatory to a Congressional letter to the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee authored by Reps. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., and Chip Pickering, R-Miss. The letter asks that the Subcommittee include in the upcoming House-Senate conference report language from an amendment offered by Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., which passed by a voice vote in that chamber’s consideration of the FY 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Act.

The amendment directs that none of the funds made available in the Act be used to close or relocate a county or local FSA office unless the Secretary of Agriculture has proven to Congress the cost-effectiveness and enhanced program delivery that would result.

“We firmly believe that the current plan should be stopped until USDA can demonstrate that there will be no decrease in critical services FSA provides American agriculture every day,” the letter states.

                                                         ###