[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[October 23, 1998]
[Pages 1848-1849]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement on Emergency Assistance to Farmers and Ranchers
October 23, 1998

    As provided for in the Omnibus bill I signed 2 days ago, I am 
pleased today to designate an additional $4.2 billion in emergency 
assistance to our nation's farmers and ranchers, to help them recover 
from the worst agricultural crisis in a decade. Coupled with the more 
then $1.6 billion in agricultural emergency funds released when I signed 
H.R. 4328, the Omnibus

[[Page 1849]]

Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, 
earlier this week, this brings the total to $5.9 billion. This amount is 
more than $1.6 billion greater than the amount included in the 
Agriculture Appropriations bill I vetoed on October 8 because it did not 
adequately address the farm crisis. I particularly want to thank Senator 
Daschle and my negotiating team for seeing to it that the final bill 
included the extra funds that will help a great many farmers stay in 
business.
    There should be no confusion over the fact that these funds provide 
only a 1-year, temporary fix for the overall problems with the farm 
safety net. That is why I am equally pleased about other provisions in 
the bill that address the long-term need for farmers to get a fair 
income from the market and to help them better manage their variation in 
annual income. A major reason for the drop in prices for some major 
crops this year has been lower commodity exports, which account for a 
third of our farm output.
    We fought long and hard to secure the nearly $18 billion in IMF 
funding included in the bill, which will especially help our customers 
in Asia and elsewhere so that they can continue to buy our farm 
products. The bill also makes permanent the ability of farmers to 
average their income across good years and bad to stabilize the farm 
family budget.
    However, I also recognize that there are some fundamental 
shortcomings in the structure of the Federal farm income safety net. 
Therefore, I will review proposals for long-term improvements in the 
risk management and crop insurance programs to reduce the risk that next 
year farmers and ranchers will again suffer under such severe 
conditions.
    I also want to thank Secretary of Agriculture Glickman for his 
tireless work on behalf of American agriculture. I know he and his staff 
are hard at work right now setting the process in place to deliver the 
assistance I am designating today. While it cannot happen overnight--in 
particular, we will not know the full extent of the 1998 crop losses and 
due compensation for some weeks to come--I know he will shortly begin 
delivering these funds to farmers and ranchers as quickly and as fairly 
as possible.

                                                      William J. Clinton

Note: H.R. 4328, approved October 21, was assigned Public Law No. 105-
277. An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this statement.