The Associated Press

PIERRE - The federal government should not try to close Farm Service Agency offices in rural areas when it is not making comparable cuts in the Washington bureaucracy, Gov. Mike Rounds says.

Rounds said he has not issued a lot of press releases on the subject because decisions on whether to close four FSA offices in South Dakota will be made by Congress and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials in Washington.

"Our letters and communications have been with our congressional delegation and with the folks in Washington, D.C., about the concerns that if they're going to be making these kinds of things, what are they going to be doing elsewhere and how can they justify doing them in South Dakota versus someplace else," Rounds said during an appearance on the Dakota News Network.

On the radio show, Rounds was responding to a listener's question about why the state is not doing more to fight the proposed closure of FSA offices in Campbell, Hyde, Sanborn and Haakon counties. USDA officials have held public meetings in Mound City, Highmore, Woonsocket and Kadoka to discuss the issue.

The USDA initially proposed closing seven offices in South Dakota, but later removed three from the list.

Rounds said state officials told the USDA its closure plan was not fair because it was not consistent across all the states and it did not seek to cut the agency's top-level bureaucracy.

FSA county offices provide direct help to farmers and ranchers by administering federal agricultural programs, Rounds said. Those offices help farmers apply for and comply with programs such as crop subsidies, disaster assistance and conservation payments, and they also provide technical assistance.

"What about Washington, D.C., where we don't have a whole lot of farmers at all?" Rounds said.

"What have they done there in terms of the bureaucracy that's there? Have they made cuts there?"

Steve Cutler, executive director of the FSA in South Dakota, has said closure and consolidation of the four county offices is necessary because the agency's staff has been reduced.

The USDA has cut FSA positions in South Dakota from 472 full-time permanent and 79 temporary employees in 2001 to 400 permanent and 19 temporary employees this year.