[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 60 (Thursday, April 29, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PASSAGE OF EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING FOR FARM SERVICE AGENCY 
                               NEEDED NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Minge) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MINGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the long delay in 
passing the emergency supplemental funding for the Farm Service Agency 
lending programs and FSA staffing budget.
  This is truly an emergency, in every sense of the word. Tracy 
Beckman, FSA Director in my state of Minnesota, has told me that he 
will be forced to lay off FSA employees because of the delay in passing 
the emergency supplemental. The demand for loans and other FSA services 
is skyrocketing because of the commercial banks' concern about 
declining farm incomes. Many producers are having a difficult time 
securing private sector operating loans. FSA has to step in to fill the 
gap with guaranteed and direct loans to producers. Demand for loans 
this year is up 75% from a year ago, the Secretary of Agriculture tells 
me.
  Minnesota FSA will approve more loan applications by the end of the 
fiscal year than they have funding. If this supplemental is not 
approved, they will be unable to deliver the funds to farmers because 
their accounts have run dry. Planting season has arrived, and those 
farmers without operating loans are going to be left high and dry.
  Mr. Speaker, now is the time to approve these truly emergency funds. 
We must not delay action on this matter because of disputes between 
Congress and the White House on other matters. The supplemental bill 
threatens to be bogged down with billions of non-emergency spending, 
and I worry that this may sink the ship.
  The president requested $6 billion to fund the air campaign against 
Yugoslavia. Some on the other side of the aisle want to pass as much as 
$20 billion. The Senate majority leader suggested $10 or $11 billion. I 
do not understand how funds the Administration has not even requested 
could be remotely considered emergency spending. We must remember these 
are Social Security funds we are spending here. If we are going to 
continue to claim to be fiscally responsible, we must be honest with 
ourselves about what is emergency funding and what is desirable 
funding. What ever happened to not opening the Social Security lock box 
unless it is an absolute emergency?
  I propose that we develop and pass in the shortest possible time 
frame a free standing emergency agriculture spending bill to provide 
critical guaranteed and direct operating loan funds that our farmers 
need to get into the field and the FSA staff to deliver those programs. 
These are truly emergency funding needs. We must move forward with a 
clean bill for agriculture now, and not hold hostage these funds for 
American farmers in a raid on the Social Security trust fund to benefit 
non-emergency defense spending.

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