[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 147 (Thursday, October 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10998-H10999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RELIEF, NOT MORE TAXES, FOR FARMERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LATHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker very much for this time 
and I also thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt) for his 
comments about the agricultural provisions in this bill that we are 
about to pass tomorrow.
  I would just like to point out some key provisions I think that are 
extremely important to all of us in agriculture who are experiencing 
some very difficult times. First of all, a new provision as far as soy 
biodiesel, and the gentleman in the Chair, the gentleman from Illinois 
(Mr. Shimkus), has played a major role in getting this included, this 
is going to be a great opportunity for soybean producers to use soybean 
oil as a fuel. It will add value to soybeans to the tune of about 8 to 
14 cents a bushel. If someone is an Iowa farmer, that is a lot of 
money.
  Also a provision in here gives some additional help to livestock 
producers who have experienced devastating crop loss and have had to go 
out and buy feed for their livestock. There are $200 million in there 
for those disasters.
  I think this bill finally shows a stark contrast to what the 
administration in their budget proposal put forth when they had $573 
million of taxes on farmers in the form of user fees if they are in the 
livestock business. So this is a great victory for livestock producers.
  There is a provision in here which is very important also to 
livestock producers, and that is a 1-year price reporting provision and 
a study to go with that. It is a pilot program, but I think it is very, 
very important that there is transparency in the market place so that 
people know when they discover price for livestock it is done in an 
open and fair manner and this is a very, very important provision.
  Also, for farmers, there are some tax provisions that are 
extraordinarily important. Income averaging, 3-year income averaging, 
is going to become a permanent part of our tax law after this bill is 
passed. We have a look-back provision so that if a farmer had a very 
good year 4 years back he can look back this year if he had a disaster 
and recover some of the taxes that he paid back in his very, very high 
income year, extremely important; a 5-year look back provision.
  Health care deduction for not only farmers but for all self-employed 
people, this is extraordinarily important. If a person is a farmer out 
there, if they have a small business, one of their major costs is 
health care, and currently we are not allowed to deduct nearly enough 
of the cost of that health care. In the year 2003, it will go to 100 
percent deductibility, extremely important for self-employed folks and 
for farmers.
  Because of our good friends at the IRS, we had to include a provision 
so that they did not tax us this year on money that we did not receive 
this year. As farmers know, the emergency bill we passed earlier 
allowed them to take their farm payments earlier in this year for the 
entire 1999 year. Well, IRS said because a person may or may not take 
the money actually this year, if they do not take it we are still going 
to charge tax on it. So we fixed that provision in this bill.
  Most importantly, Mr. Speaker, I think with this aid package that is 
here for agriculture, we did not undermine the fundamental policy of 
the freedom to farm bill. The freedom to farm is based on the idea of 
the government finally respecting the intelligence of farmers to make 
decisions for themselves.
  Over the last 6 years we have had a one-size-fits-all government 
controlled

[[Page H10999]]

policy trying to say that the government can out-guess the weather 
every year, and the government saying we know how much someone is going 
to produce next year so we are going to have a farm program that is 
going to fit that. It has never worked.
  We have either compounded surpluses or we have caused crop disaster 
years to be compounded in a negative way. It has never worked, and the 
government, with all the infinite wisdom we have around here, has never 
been able to out-guess the weather.
  I am on the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and 
Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. We have also in this bill 
fought off the administration in their efforts to undercut crop 
insurance. Looking at the President's budget this year, they cut 
dramatically crop insurance which was going to devastate any 
opportunities for farmers to cover their own risk. We have fought off 
that provision from the administration.
  We continue to put in money to help farmers to be able to export 
their products. My only hope, Mr. Speaker, would be that in this next 
fiscal year that the administration will finally use the tools that we 
have given them to help move our agricultural products overseas.
  Mr. Speaker, I think this is a very, very good bill for farmers. It 
is a very good bill for all Americans and I will support it tomorrow.

                          ____________________