Agriculture Department employees found to have engaged in discriminatory actions would be subject to discipline ranging from a letter of reprimand to dismissal under a bill filed Thursday by Rep.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is embarking on a partnership with universities across the country in hopes of infusing its ranks with more diversity as it faces civil ...

Before I was sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture, recent folks who had the job—both Republican and Democratic—suggested that it was important that I set a new, proactive course to move past USDA’s ...

In the end, it was the commute that got to Vernon Parker, the embattled civil rights director at the Department of Agriculture. He was flying home to Paradise Valley, Ariz., every week, piling up debt ...

When Tom Vilsack became head of the Agriculture Department last year, he faced a backlog of 11,000 civil rights complaints and several unresolved class-action lawsuits from minority farmers and ...

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department’s first civil rights chief is stepping down, the department said. Vernon Parker is resigning as assistant secretary for civil rights after three years on the ...