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“UNFINISHED BUSINESS REGARDING AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION MUST BE DEALT WITH” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H10811-H10812 on Oct. 13, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
UNFINISHED BUSINESS REGARDING AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION MUST BE DEALT
WITH
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, before the 105th Congress adjourns, we must be certain we conclude all of the unfinished business before this Congress, especially in the area of agriculture and in education.
Looking at agriculture, it is a travesty that the appropriations process has zeroed out the $60 million for funds for rural America which provides important capital for rural economic development. This funding should be reinstated. It is important to recognize that the long-term economic health of rural America depends on a broad and diverse economic base which requires investment in agriculture, rural businesses, infrastructure, housing stock and community facilities.
The availability of credit is a crucial factor in the success or failure of all small farmers, especially family farmers; both and large and small, I must say, also suffer from the failure of having availability of credit.
In the 1996 farm bill, those persons who, for whatever reason, had to renegotiate their credit, whether one time or two times, were denied the opportunity to get another direct loan or another guaranteed loan. That was regardless of whether it was from disaster or whether it was from having to refinance a loan because they had an overpriced or poor crop, and also if it was because they had civil rights actions, they are being denied, even after the government discriminated against them and found they did. The 1996 farm bill says that regardless of whatever the cause, that farmer cannot get a farm loan.
Now, the USDA farm program was to be the lender of last resort, and producers who have depended on that commitment from the United States Department of Agriculture now find they can neither have a guaranteed loan nor a direct loan.
There is still an opportunity, I understand, before we adjourn to adopt the Senate language which will allow that debt forgiveness and to exclude the opportunity for consolidation or rescheduling or reamortization or referrals of the loan as being bars or barriers from them getting a second loan. We hope the negotiators will take that opportunity.
In addition in the 105th Congress also the appropriators have language in there that will allow for the statute of limitations not to be a barrier to the black farmers who have had complaints against the United States Department of Agriculture, even after the department has acknowledged that they indeed did discriminate.
Now, turning to education, I am from a rural area, and I would want to tell the last speaker that I find that the President's bill calling for 100,000 teachers and reducing the size of classrooms would be beneficial to North Carolina and to my district where I come from. We come from a district that is looking for the opportunity of expanding and recruiting more teachers, and it would certainly be beneficial to reduce the class size, because even in North Carolina, we have found when you reduce the class size, students do better. They achieve better. There indeed is equal opportunity of showing that teachers teach better when they have smaller classes.
As far as the construction loans, my state recently passed bond construction for new schools so the monies that would come from the Federal Government would be a supplement. It would certainly go a long ways toward enhancing the opportunity to make sure we remove the dilapidated buildings and schools.
Again, studies have shown that students, I would say rural students, minority students and disadvantaged students, certainly learn better when they have more teachers, more time, and they certainly learn better as other students learn well when they have a good environment.
Mr. Speaker, the education bill being proposed by the President is not only good for urban areas and suburban areas, but also very good for rural areas. Rural North Carolina and the children in North Carolina would benefit from that.
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