Des Moines Register | By JENNIFER DUKES LEE | March 6, 2002
Federal nominee Thomas Dorr said in a recorded telephone conversation that government officials might "raise hell" if they audited his participation in federal farm-subsidy programs, according to an audiotape likely to be discussed during Dorr's Senate confirmation hearing today in Washington, D.C.
Dorr, a farmer in northwest Iowa, was nominated by President Bush to be an undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has repeatedly declined to comment about the audiotape, which was sent anonymously to The Des Moines Register last month. Five people familiar with Dorr identified his voice on the tape for the Register.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said this week that Dorr had to repay the government $17,000 after a 1995 review of his farm operations by federal officials. Grassley said officials determined Dorr was not part of any attempt to defraud the government.
"The fact is, the Farm Service Agency in Iowa reviewed the Dorr family trust in 1995," Grassley said in a written statement. "The state FSA office . . . found that the farm wasn't properly structured within the family trust, but that there was no scheme on the part of the family to defraud the government."
Grassley, a Republican, declined through a spokeswoman to elaborate on his comments. It was unclear whether the 1995 review mentioned by the senator was the same situation cited in the tape.
Dorr went on to say in the recording that he was trying to get around farm-payment limitations in the federal law. Grassley has been an outspoken advocate of payment limits in the proposed 2002 farm bill.
The tape is the latest development in Dorr's nomination to be undersecretary for rural development at the USDA. The Senate Agriculture Committee, led by Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa, is to hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. today on the nomination.
Dorr's selection has been controversial because of comments he has made regarding the benefits of large farms and for noting that some Iowa cities with little racial diversity were successful economically.
The tape, which an audio expert said showed no obvious signs of tampering, is less than seven minutes long. It contains a conversation between two men discussing the Dorr farms near Marcus in Cherokee County.
In northwest Iowa, five people who have known and done business with Dorr for many years listened to the tape at the Register's request and identified Dorr as one of the speakers.
A Dorr relative who also listened to the tape could not be certain the voice was his.
A speaker at the beginning of the tape asserted that the phone conversation was between Dorr and his brother Paul Dorr. Paul Dorr's identity could not be independently confirmed. Paul Dorr declined to comment when reached at his Ocheyedan office.
On the tape, Thomas Dorr was asked whether a certain farm arrangement would pass government scrutiny.
"I have no idea if it's legal. Nobody's ever called me on it," Dorr said.
"I suspect if they"d audit, and if somebody decided to come in and take a look at this thing, they could probably, if they really wanted to, raise hell with us," he said.
Dorr did not return phone messages left over this past week at the USDA, where he's been working as a consultant. A USDA spokeswoman declined to make him available for interviews before today's hearing. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, referring questions to the USDA.
Dorr supporters say he should be judged on what he says today, not from a tape of uncertain origin.
"I have known Tom Dorr all my life," said Ed Sand, president of the Marcus Economic Development Corp. "He has always been known to test the system and challenge ideas, but shouldn't that be what we are looking for in government today?"
Rumors that the tape existed and that federal officials might have a copy of it have swirled for six months. Federal officials last year denied the Register's request for a copy, but several months later, the tape arrived in the mail at the Register with no return address and no names in a short, typewritten note that accompanied it.
An Iowa group sued the USDA in federal court last week, seeking tape recordings and documents related to Dorr's farm operation. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is acting in the lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of farm groups that has actively opposed the Dorr nomination.
CCI is expected to discuss the tape during testimony today.
USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison said the agency could not comment on the tape, although she expected that the topic would come up in today's hearing. The man speaking at the beginning of the tape said the recording was made in 1995. Dorr refers to two trusts in the recording - the Belva Dorr Trust and the Harold Dorr Trust.
Dorr said that the two trusts "are operated with the ASCS, to quite frankly avoid minimum payment limitations." The ASCS is the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, now known as the Farm Service Agency.
Dorr also said he wanted to avoid a payment limitation for his farm, called Pine Grove Farms in Cherokee County.
Payment limitations under federal farm-subsidy programs at the time were set at $50,000, meaning no single person or corporation was entitled to more than that amount in a year.
Dorr received $61,121 in payments from 1996 through 2000. Dorr also was listed as the contact person for an additional $381,992 in payments made to Pine Grove Farms Inc. and a family trust.
Neil Harl, an agricultural economist and an expert in farm-subsidy programs who reviewed the tape's contents, said the arrangement Dorr described on the tape was "clearly improper."
Harl said it appeared from the tape that Dorr created an arrangement to avoid payment limits. Harl said he was aware of other farmers having done the same thing, though infrequently.
Grassley, though, noted that Dorr's arrangement was investigated by the Democratic Clinton administration.
"The FSA advised the trustees to restructure the relationship of the trust with the farm and repay the improper payments the farm had received from 1993 to 1995," Grassley said. "Those payments totaled $17,000. The Dorr family trustees and beneficiaries settled the matter by repaying the fees and restructuring the relationship as advised."
When farmers register for payments from the government, they do so under a variety of classifications, including custom-farming arrangements in which farmers are paid to farm someone else's land.
Dorr refers to "custom fees" in the taped conversation.
"I don't really want to tell everybody, not because I"m trying to hide the custom-work fees from anybody, but because I don't want to make any bigger deal out of it than I have to, relative to everybody knowing about it, including the government," Dorr said on the tape.
The tape then ends abruptly.
Minutes from 1996 meetings of the Cherokee County Farm Service Agency committee showed that the M.G. Dorr Irrevocable Family Trust was "in violation of shares" in 1993, 1994 and 1995. The"shares" refer to the percentage of payments that each party in a farm operation is supposed to receive. Dorr was named as a trustee.
It is not uncommon for farmers to have to pay back some subsidy money for a variety of reasons. But federal officials said the number of "violation of shares" cases is relatively small.Des Moines Register:
