Rep. Edolphus Towns, chair of a powerful government watchdog subcommittee, wrote Ag Secretary Mike Johanns yesterday with some tough questions about an e-mail circulated by USDA employees, using government computers and during "duty hours," that was part of a campaign to eliminate civil rights provisions from the House-passed farm bill.

Chairman Towns also called for an independent investigation, by the department's Office of Inspector General (OIG), into potentially illegal lobbying by USDA employees against black farmers. EWG and the National Black Farmers Association requested an OIG investigation a few weeks ago, and Senator Barack Obama has also weighed in.

Towns:

As you know, Congress enacted legislation several years ago to address USDA's longstanding history of discrimination against black farmers, and the House of Representatives recently passed a bill including a provision to reopen a landmark civil rights case against USDA for discrimination in providing farm loans to black farmers.

An e-mail recently circulated among USDA employees appears to denigrate the efforts to remedy USDA's history of discrimination against black farmers, and raises serious questions about USDA's commitment in this area. Moreover, the e-mail message appears to violate federal law prohibiting executive branch employees from using official resources to lobby Members of Congress.

Chairman Towns asked Johanns, among other things, for "a statement of whether USDA is conducting an internal or external investigation of improper conduct relating to the attached email."