Californian Expected to Replace Block

Richard E. Lyng, a former California farm supply dealer whom President Reagan almost tapped as secretary of agriculture five years ago, is expected to be nominated this week for that politically sensitive post, congressional and White House sources said Monday.

If confirmed by the Senate--where he is admired by members of both political parties--Lyng, 67, would succeed John R. Block, who is departing Feb. 14 to return to private business.

Lyng served as California director of agriculture when Reagan was governor, as an assistant secretary of agriculture under former President Richard M. Nixon, as president of the American Meat Institute and as Block’s top deputy until he a year ago, when he set up an agricultural consulting firm in Washington.

‘Peas in a Pod’

The easy-going, straight-talking but somewhat colorless Lyng is considered to be more politically astute and legislatively pragmatic than Block, although Lyng said in an interview Monday that “philosophically, John Block and I are peas in a pod.”

Block has staunchly supported Reagan’s “market-oriented” agricultural policy, which calls for sharply reducing federal crop subsidies and production controls.

Lyng said that the honor and prestige of serving under Reagan, plus the challenge of trying to help agriculture out of its worst crisis since the Great Depression, would make it “very difficult for me to turn it (the secretary’s job) down.”

He refused, pending a confirmation hearing, to discuss ideas he said he has for new directions in the Agriculture Department. However, several congressional supporters said that they expect him to advocate increasing crop exports through more liberal use of subsidies, despite resistance to this in other parts of the Administration.

“I think it’s essential to have both his experience and his knowledge of the necessity of increasing exports of American agricultural products,” Sen. John Melcher (D-Mont.) said.

Lost Out to Midwesterner

Lyng would have been Reagan’s first agriculture secretary if Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), now the Senate majority leader, had not intervened to push for a farmer and a Midwesterner, who turned out to be Block, an Illinois hog, corn and soybean producer.

“I got Doled out,” Lyng recalled with a laugh Monday, adding that, although he thought Reagan had made the proper decision under the circumstances, he could not help being disappointed.

As in 1981, political considerations surrounded Lyng’s candidacy over the last few weeks.

Congressional sources said that Vice President George Bush, concerned about his presidential ambitions for 1988, had raised questions about the political wisdom of appointing a Californian to replace Block at a time when economic problems are far worse in the Midwest.

In addition, Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) and a number of California farm groups had been pushing another candidate, John R. Norton, a California and Arizona farm operator who replaced Lyng as second in command at the Agriculture Department.

Norton was thought to be more sympathetic to employment of Mexican “guest workers” for California’s fruit and vegetable harvests, a source who requested anonymity said.

Grew Up in Modesto

Lyng, the grandson of an Irish immigrant lured by California’s Gold Rush, grew up in Modesto, where his father started a seed, feed and fertilizer business that Lyng later took over. Lyng bought an alfalfa farm in 1940, intending to develop a dairy, but, when Pearl Harbor was bombed, he joined the Army and never returned to farming.

To those who believe the secretary of agriculture should be a farmer, Lyng responded: “I think that driving a tractor so you can plant a straight row is not quite as important as some of the things you need to know about Washington, to be secretary of agriculture. Most farmers would rather see a fellow that is able to interpret the problems of agriculture accurately to the Washington community.”

Lyng had a coronary bypass operation in 1982 but was out playing golf within two months and still walks 18 holes on a hilly course as often as he can.

Working from his stand-up desk Monday, he showed visitors a stack of 3-by-5-inch cards on which he scribbles jokes he hears for later use in speeches. One he picked up read:

“If you really want a loyal friend in Washington, you’d better get yourself a dog.”

Staff Writer Eleanor Clift contributed to this story.