[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 8, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9956-S9957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FARM CRISIS

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, farmers continue to suffer huge losses 
through absolutely no fault of their own. No other business has less 
control of the price they can receive for what they produce, the cost 
of the inputs. Farmers cannot control the weather. They cannot control 
the world economy. They cannot control what is happening in Asia. But 
those factors do determine the price of corn, soybeans, wheat, and 
other commodities. The Freedom to Farm bill passed in 1996 sharply 
reduced the farmer's safety net to take care of those contingencies 
over which the farmer has no control.
  Now farm prices are crashing to levels not seen in decades. Many 
farmers are going to have a difficult time acquiring funds needed to 
pay their bills this year and to get the necessary money to get the 
fields prepared and to get the seed and the fertilizer to get the crops 
in the ground for next year.
  Many farmers could lose their farms that have been in their families 
for generations. I recently talked with an older farmer who said, 
``That's my life's savings. I made it through the eighties. I'm a good 
manager. I weathered that terrible storm in the eighties. And now this 
may wipe me out after a lifetime of work.''
  I am sure the Senator from Alabama knows. He has a lot of farmers in 
his State. There is the old adage that farmers live poor and die rich. 
They have all that money in that land. That is their retirement system. 
They work hard all of their lives. They do not live high on the hog. 
Then it comes time to retire. That is their equity. And now that is 
being severely eroded, not to mention the young farmers who have gotten 
started, carrying a debtload who will be really forced out of 
agriculture, never to return.
  Well, it is already having a terrible ripple effect, not only on 
farms but in small towns and communities all over America. Layoffs are 
starting to occur at agricultural equipment manufacturing companies and 
in stores. I think we are just beginning to see the stages of what 
could become a very severe downturn in rural America.
  Last week, a number of Senators and I proposed a series of 
modifications in ag programs to help alleviate the problem. But I take 
the floor this morning to say that I believe Congress should also pass 
a provision broadening existing tax law that will allow farmers to 
recover taxes paid in the past to cover their net operating losses 
right now.
  Mr. President, under existing law, businesses, including farmers, can 
be

[[Page S9957]]

reimbursed for their business losses by receiving a rebate for taxes 
paid in the prior 2 years--or 3 years in cases in which there is a 
natural disaster. Well, we are facing a large economic disaster that 
can really sink us in rural America.
  What I am proposing--and I will be shortly introducing a bill to do 
so--I propose that family farmers be allowed the option to get a rebate 
from the taxes that they paid over the past 10 years, covering up to 
$200,000 in operating losses rather than the 2 years that is allowed 
under current law.
  Many farmers cannot receive a rebate for their operating losses 
because they were not able to make any taxable profits in the last 
couple of years. By being able to go back 10 years, we will allow these 
farmers to be able to get a rebate next year and then limit it to 
$200,000 so it would be available to all family farms, up to a limit of 
$200,000 in net operating losses.
  The benefit would only go to farmers whose families are actively 
engaged in farming and whose business activity is mostly farming. The 
amount of the rebate would be dependent on the amount of the loss and 
the tax rate paid by farmers for the paid taxes that are being 
restored.
  The provision I am proposing would cover losses occurring in both 
1998 or 1999.
  If passed this year, farmers would be able to calculate their losses 
early next year and receive a rebate from the IRS for the taxes paid in 
earlier years very soon thereafter. This proposal would provide a 
significant amount of relief when it is needed early next year. It 
would help many farmers acquire the funds they need, as I said, to get 
the fields prepared and get the feed and fertilizer and bills paid so 
they can continue on next year.
  I might add that there is some precedent for this. There was a case 
in 1997 where Amtrak was allowed to use net operating losses of their 
predecessor railroads going back over 20 years in the past. So there is 
precedent for this. If we can do it for Amtrak, I think certainly we 
ought to be able to do it for our family farmers. I am hopeful at some 
point this fall either under a tax bill, if we are going to have one, 
or under some other vehicle, that we can at least put this provision 
in.
  I know my colleague from Iowa has another provision that would allow 
farmers to invest some of their profits for up to 5 years without being 
taxed until the money is used in poorer years, which is a great 
provision, one I also hope gets through.
  Right now, the farmers are facing the fact that they don't have any 
money. I think maybe the two coupled together will get them some funds. 
If they went ahead and invested and used a provision of my colleague 
from Iowa, we might have a situation to help get some of the farmers 
through the next couple of years.
  I just wanted to bring that to the attention of Senators. I hope to 
be introducing that very shortly. Again, I don't mean to belabor it, 
but we are seeing really bad times out there. I used these charts last 
week. I will use them again in case other Senators may be watching that 
didn't watch last week. Since July 16, wheat, corn, and soybeans are 
all down--I used central Illinois only as a measuring point--21 percent 
decline in the past 6 weeks in corn, 21 percent decline in soybeans in 
the last 6 weeks, and a 13 percent decline in the past 6 weeks in hard 
red winter wheat in Kansas City. We see no signs this will be 
alleviated any time soon. It looks like we will have a record crop of 
soybeans this year, a record crop, and probably the second or third 
largest corn crop we have ever had. So this will be hanging over the 
marketplace. We need to do everything we can.
  Again, I hope that we will have some provisions very soon that will 
remove the caps on the loan rates and even provide emergency provisions 
for the Secretary to be able to pay storage payments to farmers, to 
store some of that grain so that they don't have to dump it this fall. 
They can keep it until next year. Maybe the Asian economy will come 
back; maybe there won't be very good weather next year, whatever; maybe 
the prices will come back next year. Let the farmer have the freedom to 
market that grain at some point down the line rather than just dumping 
it on the market this year.
  There are other provisions that we will be talking about, but I think 
those are the major ones that will help get us through a very, very 
difficult year in agriculture and all over the world.
  I thank my colleague for yielding me the time.

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