William (Billy) P. Milton, Jr., serves as the Deputy Director, Office of Human Resources Management, Departmental Management, U.S. Department of Agriculture. In this position, Billy provides vision and leadership to USDA-wide programs in employee and labor relations, recruitment, diversity, veterans and disability employment, work/life, hiring reform, human resources policy, workforce and succession planning, human resources accountability, human resources enterprise systems, and EO accountability. In addition, under Billy’s leadership, a new enterprise-wide USDA Virtual University has been established.
Prior to serving his current position, Billy served as Assistant Administrator for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in the Office of Catfish Inspection Programs (OCIP) and, prior to that, as the Assistant Administrator the Office of Management.
The 2008 Farm Bill established mandatory inspection of catfish. Billy was asked by the FSIS Administrator to serve as the responsible official for establishing the organization and infrastructure for this critical new program within an 18 month period, as established by law. As Assistant Administrator for OCIP, he provided executive leadership in establishing, implementing, and overseeing a nationwide program of regulatory oversight and conduct of inspection activities and enforcement of catfish inspection.
As Assistant Administrator for FSIS’ Office of Management (OM), Billy was responsible for developing, directing, and coordinating administrative management activities for the Agency regarding human resources management; strategic planning; mediation and work/life services; labor-management relations; litigation; safety and health, equal employment opportunity; civil rights; human capital planning; procurement; budget formulation, presentation, and execution; and financial management.
Billy has also worked with national labor organizations representing Federal sector employees. During the fifteen years in labor organizations, he served as a National Representative, Deputy Director of Membership and Organization, and Director, for Representation and Education. Prior to his work with labor, Billy worked for the U.S. Customs Service.