[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          PUT THE FARMER FIRST

  (Mr. FUNDERBURK asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, I have often said that farmers are the 
backbone of my district. The Second District of North Carolina from 
Rocky Mount to Dunn is the second largest producer of tobacco in 
America. We also have hundreds of soybean, peanut, and livestock farms. 
Unfortunately, Washington treats these hard working Americans like 
criminals. It taxes and regulates them.
  A classic example of Washington's war on farmers is the tax penalty 
the IRS imposes on those who pass farmland down to their family 
members. Farmers have 2 years to notify the IRS that someone has died.
  The catch is that the IRS has not make hundreds of farm families 
aware of this requirement. For farmers who do not have time to read the 
IRS fine print, the tax police demand back taxes and penalties which 
are so severe, that these farmers are now in the position of having to 
sell their farms to pay the tax man.
  Mr. Speaker, the farmer has had enough--enough of interference, 
enough of redtape, and enough of the IRS. Let us do something right for 
the men and women who put the food on the table. For starters let us 
pass H.R. 501, which allows farm families to hand their and down from 
each generation without fear of the IRS.

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