001018 USDA Faulted on Commodity Referendum Procedure

Washington - USDA needs to improve its procedures for validating petitions for referenda on commodity promotion programs, a congressional study says.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman called a referendum on the pork promotion program on his own after his department was unable to validate sufficient signatures on petitions asking for the vote.

A report by the General Accounting Office said the department didn't know for sure how many pork producers there are and also used flawed survey methodology in trying to verify the eligibility of the 19,000 people who signed petitions asking for the pork referendum. Under government rules, the USDA was required to hold a referendum if 15% of eligible producers asked for one.

Promotion programs are funded through mandatory assessments on producers and importers.

The GAO agreed that Glickman had the authority to call the referendum on his own. It also said that the pork promotion program should pay for the cost of running the referendum, not taxpayers. The referendum is expected to cost $529,000.

Glickman agreed with the GAO's findings, spokesman Andy Solomon said Friday.

“Increasingly, we find ourselves in the business of running elections, which is not something we have historic expertise at dealing with,” Solomon said.

The USDA also has been petitioned to have a vote on the beef promotion program. The department is hiring an accounting firm to validate those petitions. The department expects to know by the end of the year whether there are sufficient signatures to have a referendum, Solomon said.

The pork voting was held Sept. 19-21. Counting and verifying the ballots is expected to take weeks.

The pork program is best known for the advertising slogan, “The Other White Meat.”

“Because checkoff assessments are mandatory it is essential that there be a fair and orderly process in place to ensure producers have a say in whether the checkoff program is benefitting them,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

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