[House Document 105-321]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



105th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - - House Document 105-321


 
                           VETO OF H.R. 4101

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

 HIS VETO OF H.R. 4101, A BILL MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE, 
 RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES 
 PROGRAMS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1999, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES





    October 8, 1998.--Message and accompanying bill referred to the 
         Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be printed


To the House of Representatives:
    I am returning herewith without my approval, H.R. 4101, the 
``Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, 
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999.'' I am vetoing 
this bill because it fails to address adequately the crisis now 
gripping our Nation's farm community.
    I firmly believe and have stated often that the Federal 
Government must play an important role in strengthening the 
farm safety net. This appropriations bill provides an 
opportunity each year for the Government to take steps to help 
hardworking farmers achieve a decent living, despite the 
misfortune of bad weather, crop disease, collapsing markets, or 
other forces that affect their livelihoods. It is especially 
necessary for the Government to act this year, with prices 
dropping precipitously, crops destroyed by flood, drought, and 
disease, and where many farmers will see their net income drop 
by as much as 40 percent below a 5-year average.
    Two years ago, when I signed the ``Freedom to Farm Bill,'' 
I made clear that it did not provide an adequate safety net for 
our Nation's farmers. There is no better proof of that bill's 
shortcomings than the hardship in America's farm country this 
year. Our farm families are facing their worst crisis in a 
decade.
    My Administration has already taken steps to address this 
crisis. In July, we announced the purchase of $250 million of 
wheat to export to hungry people around the world. In August, I 
signed legislation to speed up farm program payments. But in 
the face of a growing emergency for our Nation's farmers, we 
must do more to ensure that American farmers can continue to 
provide, for years to come, the safest and least expensive food 
in the world. Last month, I sent to the Congress a request for 
$2.3 billion in emergency aid for our farmers, and I supported 
Senator Daschle's and Harkin's proposal to boost farm income by 
lifting the cap on marketing loan rates.
    I am extremely disappointed that the Congress has reacted 
to this agriculture emergency situation by sending me a bill 
that fails to provide an adequate safety net for our farmers. I 
have repeatedly stated that I would veto any emergency farm 
assistance bill if it did not adequately address our farmers' 
immediate needs, and this bill does not do enough.
    The lack of sufficient emergency aid for farmers in this 
bill is particularly problematic in light of the bill's other 
provisions that affect farmers and their rural communities. 
Cutting edge agricultural research is absolutely essential to 
improve our farmers' productivity and to maintain their 
advantage over our competitors around the world. But this bill 
eliminates the $120 million in competitive research grants for 
this year that I strongly supported and signed into law just 
last June. It also blocks the $60 million from the Fund for 
Rural America provided through that same bill, preventing 
needed additional rural development funds that would help our 
Nation's rural communities to diversify their economies and 
improve their quality of life. The bill also cuts spending for 
our food safety initiative in half, denying funds for research, 
public education, and other food safety improvements.
    Many of our most vulnerable farmers have also had to face 
an obstacle that no one in America ever should have to 
confront: racial discrimination. Over 1,000 minority farmers 
have filed claims of discrimination by USDA's farm loan 
programs in the 1980s and early 1990s that the statute of 
limitations bars from being addressed. While I am pleased that 
this legislation contains a provision waiving the statute of 
limitations, I am disappointed that it does not contain the 
language included in the Senate's version of this bill, which 
accelerates the resolution of the cases, provides claimants 
with a fair and full court review if they so choose, and covers 
claims stemming from USDA's housing loan programs.
    Therefore, as I return this bill, I again call on the 
Congress to send me a comprehensive plan, before this session 
ends, that adequately responds to the very real needs of our 
farmers at this difficult time.

                                                William J. Clinton.
    The White House, October 7, 1998.





                              
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