| Sumario: | Minnesota Democrat Collin C. Peterson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, is making what he calls “USDA modernization” a top priority. Farm Service Agency offices manage agriculture subsidy programs using antiquated computer programming that has already suffered a major system failure and halted payments to hundreds of thousands of producers for a whole month. The economic stimulus law enacted earlier in 2009 grants USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, $50 million to help overhaul its aged computer system. USDA's appeal for fiscal 2010 will be made public as part of the Obama administration's official budget request in early May 2009.
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