Dole Unhappy with Release of Farmers' Data

Source from:  Associated PressRALEIGH, N.C. 02/22/2006

Sen. Elizabeth Dole has written the U.S. Agriculture Department to express her displeasure with the accidental release of Social Security and tax identification numbers of 350,000 tobacco farmers. The Agriculture Department said earlier this week that it had released the data inadvertently in response to Freedom of Information requests about the tobacco buyout program. The information went to eight people or groups, who agreed not to release it and to turn over any copies, officials said. In a letter to J.B. Penn, undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services in the Agriculture Department, Dole said Friday it was "especially disturbing that the financial welfare of many tobacco buyout participants may have been placed at risk due to a lack of good judgment by an agency that is seeking to assist them." About 80,000 of the farmers whose information was released are from North Carolina, Dole said. Most of the buyout money is going to farmers in North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. Enditem