[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6008]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RETIREMENT OF BILLY ROSS BROWN

 Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, my friend, Billy Ross Brown, has 
retired from the First South Farm Credit, ACA Board of Directors where 
he served faithfully for many years.
  Billy Ross became a director on the Oxford, MS, PCA Board in 1968 and 
he served as chairman of the board from 1975 to 1985. He was then 
elected to serve on the First South Farm Credit Board and served from 
1985 to 1990.
  He left the First South Board after being recommended by me and 
appointed by President George H.W. Bush to serve on the Board of the 
Farm Credit Administration and the Farm Credit System Insurance 
Corporation in Washington, DC. During this time he served as the first 
chairman of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation where he 
nurtured it through its startup as a Federal agency and directed it as 
it began to capitalize the Farm Credit System insurance fund. He was 
subsequently appointed chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit 
Administration where he served with distinction until October 1974.
  While at the FCA, he undertook the first critical internal review of 
the agency, which provided him with useful insights and perspectives as 
he guided the agency through a difficult period of adjustment, 
following the system's financial stress in the mid-1980s. At his 
recommendation and under his direction, FCA undertook its first efforts 
at relieving regulatory burdens. He authored the agency's first 
statement on regulatory philosophy which reflected his commitment to 
cost-effective regulation and risk-based examination and supervision. 
It was his belief that any cost savings or efficiencies derived by the 
cooperatively owned Farm Credit Institutions would ultimately benefit 
the system's farmer borrowers and thereby benefit all agricultural 
producers.
  After Billy Ross moved back to Oxford from Washington, the First 
South Farm Credit nominating committee nominated Billy Ross to run 
again for the First South Farm Credit Board. Billy Ross served again on 
the First South Board from June 1999 until his mandatory retirement in 
March 2005.
  Billy Ross has served the Farm Credit System and U.S. agricultural 
interests for over 36 years. Combined with his father's service to the 
Farm Credit and the local PCA, the immediate Brown family has over 55 
years of service to American agriculture.
  No person has served First South Farm Credit, ACA, the Farm Credit 
Administration, and the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation with 
more loyalty, dignity, and honor than Billy Ross Brown.
  Over the years, I have observed Billy Ross' dedicated service to his 
family, his community and his country. He is a true gentleman with a 
great heart and love for all mankind.
  While I wish him well in his retirement, I suspect he will continue 
to be involved in the ongoing success of Mississippi agricultural 
interests and I hope he will still find time to fish with his friends, 
but only if the weather is good.

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