- The Washington Post

- The Washington Post: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday that his agency would quickly adopt most of the recommendations contained in a two year study that looked at USDA’s history of discrimination and its ongoing civil rights failings.

The recommendations range from making the department’s rural development programs more accessible to women to appointing a “chief diversity officer” in each of the agency’s state offices.

The $8 million assessment by an outside group was spurred by a promise from the Obama administration to bring “cultural transformation” to a department that has been guilty of some of the government’s most egregious cases of discrimination.

“There is a massive effort within USDA to change the culture,” Vilsack said in an interview. “There is a real commitment from the top down.”