Political Quotes

“a couple of days ago I introduced formally the Agriculture Credit Restoration Act of 1998. This has now been presented in the form of an amendment to the emergency supplemental, amendment 2135. The purpose is very simple. In the 1996 farm bill a provision was added in conference that was not considered by the full Senate or by the House but was added in the conference that, in effect, precluded anybody who had a write-down or loan forgiveness from ever being eligible for a loan that was made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the lender of last resort. They don't lend under any circumstances where at least three private lenders have not already denied credit and they do not lend to noncreditworthy applicants. In this particular bill we have $48 million that is set aside to increase the direct operating loan fund, which is presumably being made available to those who are most in need. But the provision that is currently in the law that this particular amendment would change precludes anyone who has had a write-down or had credit forgiveness or whatever the case may be. In a number of instances, that occurred precisely because the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against those individuals. So it is a Catch-22. The Agriculture Department acknowledges that there was past discrimination. The current Secretary of Agriculture has acknowledged this.”