U.S. Department of Agriculture

Plain Writing Act Compliance Report

July 13, 2011
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Our Pledge

We at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are committed to improving our service to 

you by writing in plain language. By October 2011, we will use plain language in any new or 

substantially revised document that:

• Provides information about any of our services or benefits;

• Is necessary to obtain any of our benefits or services; or, 

• Explains how to comply with a requirement that we administer or enforce.

We pledge to provide you with information that is clear, understandable, and useful in every 

paper or electronic letter, publication, form, notice, or instruction. 

I. USDA Officials for Plain Writing

Senior Officials

We are committed at the highest levels to ensuring full compliance with the Act. The 

Secretary recognizes the importance of using plain language to achieving the goals of the 

President’s Open Government initiative, as well as the USDA Cultural Transformation 

initiative. Our Senior Officials for Plain Writing are:

Senior Officials

Jerold R. Mande:

Senior Advisor to the Under 

Secretary for Food, Nutrition, 

and Consumer Services

Jerold.Mande@osec.usda.gov

James Gore:

Acting Director for the 

Office of the Executive 

Secretariat

James.Gore@osec.usda.gov

John Padalino:

Chief of Staff to the Under 

Secretary for Rural 

Development

John.Padalino@osec.usda.gov

Agency Coordinators 

USDA is made up of 17 agencies and 120,000 employees who serve the American people at 

over 2,300 locations across the country and abroad. To lead implementation of the Act and 

ensure our compliance we have created a working group of agency officials. These officials 

are accountable for making sure their agency or office produces public documents in plain 

language. For a list of agency officials please see section VIII.
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II. Specific Types of USDA Communications that will be Available 

in a Format Consistent with the Plain Writing Guidelines

Type of document or posting Who is responsible Impact of using 

plain language

Form Program or agency head Reduce burden on users, 

reduce errors, reduce 

compliance and review costs

Public Notice Signing Official Increase awareness of agency 

actions

Question and answer, Frequently 

asked questions, How to, or any 

other informal guidance documents

Program or agency head Increase awareness of 

programs, increase 

understanding of program 

rules and guidelines, reduce 

compliance and customer 

service costs

Request for proposal, Request for 

information, other contract 

opportunities

Contracting Officer Increase competition, increase 

opportunities for small and 

new businesses

Web page Webmaster Increase public 

comprehension of web 

content

Correspondence Signing Official Improve customer satisfaction

Proposed or final rule Signing Official Increase comprehension of 

rules, improve compliance

Press releases Communications 

Director

Increase comprehension of 

agency public announcements

Publicly available reports Author Increase awareness of agency 

activities and program results

Research publications Author Increase accessibility of 

research findings, increase use 

of research findings

Notice of funds available, requests 

for application, and other funding 

opportunities

Signing Official Increase awareness and 

accessibility of opportunities
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III. Inform agency staff of Plain Writing Act’s requirements:

Successful implementation of the Act requires an aware workforce. This is a sample of the 

awareness strategies we have or will employ prior to the Act taking full effect on October 13, 2011.

• We had the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) co-chairs Amy 

Bunk and Kathryn Catania briefed more than 100 agency officials including, Under, 

Deputy, and Assistant Secretaries, other senior officials, and political appointees. The 

briefings included a summary of the Act, plain writing basics, and case studies to 

demonstrate how writing clearly can improve program delivery, increase customer 

satisfaction, and save money.

• The Secretary sent an email to all employees to emphasize his commitment to plain 

language, publicized the launch of the USDA plain language web page, and asked each 

employee to read the USDA Plain Language Implementation Plan.

• The Senior Officials for Plain Writing presented about the Plain Writing Act to key 

Department-wide working groups, including the Deputy Administrators for Management, 

Training Officers, Outreach Coordinators, and Correspondence Control Officers and 

work with leadership to identify opportunities for each group to support implementation.

• Publish articles in the MyUSDA newsletter and agency employee publications, such as 

the NRCS Executive Correspondence Management Team newsletter.

• Develop a plain language awareness kit with posters, tip sheets, and other tools that 

managers across USDA can use to educate their staffs.

• Establish a plain language community of practice on the USDA Connect online 

collaboration tool that any employee can join, post resources to, or ask questions about 

plain language. 

IV. Training

Successful implementation of the Act requires a trained workforce. The documents that we have 

committed to producing in plain language come from across USDA and involve many different 

types of staff, including the following (and many more):

• Loan officers that provide guidance to potential applicants;

• Program staff that develop forms and regulations;

• Inspectors that send notices to plants that USDA checks for compliance;

• Contract officers that prepare notices of contract opportunities;

• Foresters that develop land management plans; 

• Communications specialists that write press releases; and,

• IT specialists that help our programs develop web pages.
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This is a sample of the training strategies we have or will employ prior to the Act taking full 

effect on October 13, 2011.

• Provide plain language training to political appointees, agency coordinators, and other 

critical staff from across the Department (approx. 175 total).

Type of Training Approx. Number of 

Employees Trained

Date

Various agency staff trainings, including 

the Forest Service, Food and Nutrition 

Service, and the Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service

1998 -

present

Secretary, Under and Assistant 

Secretaries, and other senior officials 

received preliminary training from PLAIN

20 May 2011

Political appointees received preliminary

training from PLAIN

60 May 2011

Agency correspondence staff received 

comprehensive training from PLAIN

40 June 2011

Agency working group members received 

comprehensive training from PLAIN

55 July 2011

• Work with agency training officers to identify candidates for the Plain Language Action 

and Information Network’s (PLAIN) boot camp. The boot camp equips graduates to be 

plain language trainers for their agency.

• Publish virtual training materials and other tools for employees to the USDA plain 

language web page. 

• Establish an inter-agency working group to put the Act into practice, develop training to 

teach its requirements, and stay accountable for its results.

• Post information on the Act to the USDA and agency intranet sites. This includes how to 

guides, frequently asked questions, examples of how plain language techniques can be 

used to improve products, and more. 
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• Develop a course for the USDA Aglearn online training platform that is available to all 

employees.

V. Ensuring Compliance with the Act

USDA will establish a process for overseeing our ongoing compliance with the requirements set 

forth in the Act. To ensure that USDA meets our statutory obligations we commit to the 

following process and mechanisms:

• As required by the Act, no later than April 13 of each year, USDA will publish an Annual 

Compliance Report to our plain language web page.

• We will identify critical review points that covered documents are subject to prior to 

publication and institute a plain language verification step. For example, all USDA 

forms are reviewed by a Departmental forms manager in OCIO. The addition of a plain 

language compliance step to their business process will enable us to ensure compliance 

without establishing a new, complex bureaucratic process.

• We will establish a subcommittee to the agency’s plain writing working group to oversee 

compliance and make recommendations to the working group to address deficiencies. 

The Senior Officials for Plain Writing will co-chair the subcommittee which will also 

include representatives from each mission area. The subcommittee will meet quarterly.

• Each USDA agency will create an individual implementation plan. The subcommittee 

will review the plan. Once finalized, the agency representative will regularly report on 

their progress to the subcommittee.

• Public feedback is critical to helping us identify and resolve compliance issues. We will 

establish an online tool to enable the public to let us know if they see a new covered 

document that does not comply with the Act.

• Prior to the date that the Act goes into full effect we will publish a departmental 

regulation on plain language. The regulation will establish a compliance oversight 

function and provide more detailed requirements related to critical review points, 

training, and responding to public feedback in order to improve compliance.

VI. Agency’s Plain Writing Webpage

The USDA plain writing web page is available at www.usda.gov/plain-writing. It includes tools 

and resources for writing plain language, information on how the public can contact USDA if 

they have any comments, concerns, or issues related to our compliance with the Act, and links to 

the Plain Language Action and Information Network’s website.
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The text of the Plain Language Act of 2010 is available here, and the final guidance on the Act 

provided to agencies by the Office of Management and Budget is available here. For additional 

information on plain writing you can also visit www.plainlanguage.gov.

VII. Customer Satisfaction Evaluation after Experiencing 

Plain Writing Communications

We want your input. Public feedback is critical to help us know when we have been 

unsuccessful and when we have been successful in producing documents that are clear and 

understandable for everyone that uses them. Your comments will also help us identify older 

documents that we should consider revising into plain language.

You may send comments by email to plain@usda.gov or by postal mail to:

USDA Plain Language Coordinator

Office of the Executive Secretariat

U.S. Department of Agriculture

1400 Independence Avenue SW

Washington, D.C. 20250

VIII. Agency Coordinator Information

Farm And Foreign Agricultural Service

Farm Service Agency:

Todd Atkinson

atkinson@usda.gov

Foreign Agricultural Service:

Lisa Twedt

Lisa.Twedt@usda.gov

Risk Management Agency:

Pat Engel

Patricia.Engel@usda.gov

Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services

Food and Nutrition Service:

Rich Lucas

Richard.Lucas@usda.gov

Dave Burr

David.Burr@usda.gov

Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion:

Rich Lucas

Richard.Lucas@usda.gov
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Marketing and Regulatory Programs

Agricultural Marketing 

Service:

Karen Comfort

Karen.Comfort@usda.gov

Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service:

Janel Barsi 

Janel.L.Barsi@usda.gov

Grain Inspection, Packers 

and Stockyard Admin.:

Mike Schmidt

Natural Resources and Environment

Forest Service:

Hutch Brown

Hutch.Brown@usda.gov

Natural Resources Conservation Service:

Sarah Scanlon 

Sarah.Scanlon@osec.usda.gov

Food Safety

Food Safety Inspection Service:

Chuck Williams 

charles.williams2@usda.gov

Rene Cardwell 

rene.cardwell@usda.gov

Research, Education, and Economics

Agricultural Research Service:

Tara Weaver-Missick 

Tara.WeaverMissick@usda.gov

Economic Research 

Service:

Dale Simms 

Dale.Simms@usda.gov

National Agricultural Library:

Mary Conley 

Mary.Conley@osec.usda.gov

National Agricultural Statistics Service:

Sue DuPont

SUZANNA.L.DUPONT@usda.gov

National Institute of Food and Agriculture:

Scott Elliott

Scott.Elliott2@usda.gov
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Rural Development

John Padalino

John.Padalino@osec.usda.gov

Departmental Management

Office of the Assistant Secretary 

for Administration:

Greg Diephouse

Greg.Diephouse@osec.usda.gov

Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Civil Rights:

Winona Lake Scott

Winona.Scott@ascr.usda.gov

Office of Budget and 

Program Analysis:

Andrew Perry

awp@obpa.usda.gov

Office of the Chief Information Officer:

Matthew Patrick

Matthew.Patrick@ocio.usda.gov

Office of the Executive Secretariat:

David Aten

David.Aten@osec.usda.gov

Staff Offices

Office of the Chief Economist:

Brenda Chapin

BChapin@oce.usda.gov

Office of Communications:

Carrie Mitchell

Carrie.Mitchell@oc.usda.gov

Office of the General Council:

Michael Knipe

Michael.Knipe@ogc.usda.gov

Steve Silverman

Steve.Silverman@osec.usda.gov

Office of the Inspector General:

Dr. Darryl Stephens

Darryl.Stephens@usda.gov