02/16/05 Security cost squeeze on FAS

02/16/05 Security cost squeeze on FAS

Farm and Ranch February 16, 2005 Security needs at U.S. embassies abroad are going to impact the budget of the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and could therefore potentially impact funds the FAS has available for such organizations as U.S. Wheat Associates and the U.S. Grains Council which do export market development work. . Vince Peterson, vice president of overseas operations for U.S. Wheat Associates explains. Peterson: "The State Department has required USDA through the FAS to share in the cost of embassy security around the world. And it is a huge bill. It can run millions of dollars per embassy and they just divided it among the departments. So the USDA has a budgetary issue to deal with and that is how they are going to fund these security measures. That is all part of the FAS budget that we work with. So it is entirely possible that our programs could come under scrutiny." Peterson says congress will have oversight over some of this, but the FAS will also make internal decisions. Peterson: "How many people do they want overseas? What kind of offices? They have a couple of different kinds. They have some offices at embassies, an attache, an ag counselor and they also have agricultural trade offices that are really offices set up to facilitate commerce. So they have to make some decisions do we keep or not? So it is a big struggle for them. And they in a couple of meetings with us put us on notice." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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