§ 0.735-21 - Activities with regard to farm organizations.

(a) Department employees shall refrain from participating actively in meetings and in other activities concerned with the establishment of general or specialized farm organizations, or with recruiting members for existing organizations such as the National Grange, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Organization, the Farmers’ Union, the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and Breed and Commodity Organizations. This is a necessary corollary of the equally long-established policy of the Department that it shall deal fairly with all organizations and deal with each upon the same basis. As a continuation of this policy, it should be understood by employees of the Department that it is not permissible for any of them to:

(1) Participate in establishing any general or specialized farm organization;

(2) Act as organizer for any such organization, or hold any other functional office therein;

(3) Act as financial or business agent for any such organization;

(4) Participate in any way in any membership campaign or other activity designed to recruit members for any such organization;

(5) Accept the use of free office space or contributions for salary or traveling expense from any such organization;

(6) Advocate that any particular general or specialized organization of farmers is better adapted for carrying out the work of this Department than any individual citizen, group of citizens, or organizations;

(7) Advocate that the responsibilities of any Agency of this Department or any other Federal agency should be carried out through any particular general or specialized organization of farmers;

(8) Advocate or recommend that any State or local agency should carry out its responsibilities through any particular general or specialized organization of farmers; or

(9) Approve contracts for the Department with any cooperative or other commercial organization whenever such cooperative or other commercial organization deducts or checks off from payments due farmers, membership dues of such farmers to any general or specialized organization of farmers, except as it is determined that current authorization for such deduction has been knowingly filed by such individual farmers with the cooperative or other commercial organization.

(b) The restrictions set forth in paragraph (a) of this section do not:

(1) Apply to members of an FmHA County Committee;

(2) Apply to specialized organizations of farmers such as cow testing associations and similar groups; or

(3) Prohibit employees from participating in the organization of groups that are needed in carrying out federally authorized programs, for example, an REA cooperative and similar groups determined by the appropriate Agency Head to be essential in effectuating federally authorized programs.

(c) If any violations of any of the provisions of this section should occur, full information with reference thereto should at once be submitted to the Office of the Inspector General by the Head of the Agency in which the person violating any of these provisions is employed.