USDA Streamlines Civil Rights Enforcement into One Accountable Office

(Washington, D.C., June 17, 2026) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the consolidation of fourteen separate civil rights offices into one office under the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, establishing a single intake, a single standard, and one accountable office for every American who brings a civil rights claim to USDA.

"Civil rights enforcement at USDA must be vigorous and applied equally to every American," said Secretary Brooke L. Rollins. "This reorganization replaces fourteen offices and fourteen processes with one office and one standard. Every American who comes to USDA with a civil rights claim deserves the same federal law applied the same way."

For decades, civil rights enforcement at USDA has run through fourteen mission area and staff offices that applied fourteen different processing times to the same federal statute. The reorganization corrects that variance by establishing one accountable office, answering directly to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. The Office will continue to be headquartered in the National Capital Region with a reduced footprint and stands up two new hubs in Raleigh, North Carolina and Fort Collins, Colorado.

"The employees who do this work are the foundation of the reorganization," said Deputy Secretary Stephen A. Vaden. "Their expertise and decades of service built USDA's civil rights enforcement, and that work carries forward."

Every constitutional, statutory, and regulatory authority the Office administers will be uninterrupted during this reorganization, including Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, Section 504, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Age Discrimination Act, and every Executive Order in the portfolio. Every new and open complaint will continue to be processed.

"This is about delivering equal protection of the laws to every American who depends on this Department," said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Devon Westhill. "The constitutional standard the law requires is equal protection, equally enforced. The reorganization and consolidation aligns USDA's enforcement with that standard."

For more information, visit usda.gov/reorganization.

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