WASHINGTON -- In his 20 years as a senator, Tom Harkin has never blocked the appointment of a fellow Iowan -- except Marcus native Thomas Dorr.

Raising a fistful of documents he said showed Dorr tried to cheat the department he wants to work for, Harkin, D-Iowa, grilled the presidential appointee Wednesday on whether he is qualified to be USDA undersecretary for rural development.

In 1997 and 2002, two Dorr family trusts paid back a total of $34,000 to the Farm Securities Administration. The reimbursement followed a USDA finding that in the early 1990's Thomas Dorr had filed false paperwork that allowed him to receive subsidies in excess of the government cap. In a taped conversation anonymously sent to The Des Moines Register in March 2002, which Harkin played at Wednesday's hearing, a man identified as Dorr admits to the fraud.

Dorr responded to the charges, saying that repaying the money was easier than fighting a court battle.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, supports Dorr's appointment, and Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry Committee chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said Dorr's current record is more important than an incident 10 years ago.

Dorr has already served as undersecretary in a temporary position to which President Bush appointed him after the Senate blocked his official appointment in 2002. Dorr served for 16 months in the recess appointment.

Dorr said his goal is to rejuvenate rural America, which, he said, "has been in a real funk since the late 1970s."

His work has drawn praise from Iowa Corn Growers Association president David Calderwood, who in a letter last week asked the committee to vote in Dorr's favor.

But the Iowa Farmers Union and the Washington-based National Family Farm Coalition oppose Dorr's appointment. They not only cite his alleged misconduct, but also claim that he favors large corporate farms over smaller family ones.

They point to a 1998 New York Times article that describes Dorr's own technologically advanced, 3,800-acre farm, which grossed about $2 million annually and ranked among the elite group of large farms that produce half the country's agricultural products. That group makes up only 4 percent of American farms.

IFU president Chris Petersen said small farmers in America are at a crossroads, and, as undersecretary, Dorr could throw them off track.

"Are we going to revamp, restructure and keep the family farm in business or are we going to go corporate?" he asked. "We got a few years to figure it out."

Grassley said that Dorr would help family farmers by helping "the whole of rural America."

"He showed a unique ability to use tax-supported programs to encourage private investments (in rural development programs)," Grassley said. "So I think you get more bang for your dollar."

Dorr also drew criticism for a 1999 racially insensitive comment. In a speech to Iowa college students, Dorr said of three Iowa counties: {M3 "They're very diverse in their economic growth, but they're very focused, uh, have been very non-diverse in their ethnic background and their religious background, and there's something there that has enabled them to succeed and to succeed very well."

National Black Farmers Association president John Boyd called the comments alarming, and cited them as part of the reason the Lawrenceville, Va.-based organization opposes Dorr's nomination.

Asked to explain the 1999 comment, Dorr said it had been taken out of context and that minority issues were a "top agenda item."

A vote on Dorr's nomination has not yet been scheduled in either the Agriculture Committee or the Senate.

Contact Heather Gillers at h-gillers@northwestern.edu.