[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 19 (Monday, May 16, 1994)]
[Pages 1056-1057]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Farmers Home Administration Improvement Act of 
1994

May 11, 1994

    I am today signing into law S. 1930, the Farmers Home Administration 
Improvement Act of 1994. This Act is intended to give the Farmers Home 
Administration in the Department of Agriculture (USDA) an additional 
tool with which to reduce the substantial backlog of delinquent farm 
loan debt. It authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to use USDA's 
Office of General Counsel or private attorneys acting under contract, in 
addition to the current authority to refer matters to the Department of 
Justice, to resolve loan delinquencies.
    My Administration is committed to more aggressive Government action 
to resolve the problem of delinquent farm loan debt. There are too many 
borrowers, many of them of substantial means and not full-time farmers,

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who have been delinquent on their farm loans for years. Resolving these 
cases will return resources to taxpayers and provide additional 
opportunities for beginning farmers.
    Because the Attorney General has overall responsibility for the 
conduct of litigation by the United States, I have directed the 
Departments of Justice and Agriculture to work together to implement 
this authority.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House
May 11, 1994.

Note: This statement was released by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on May 12. S. 1930, approved May 11, was assigned Public Law No. 103-
248.