Sustainable
Farming Connection |
Where
farmers find and share information. | Action Alert, Issued: 3/5/98 Urgent Credit, Civil Rights
Action Needed
Emergency legislation needed to allow access to credit for farmers
affected by disasters and pending civil rights investigation.
Farmers affected by weather related disasters, and those who have
received debt write-downs are in effect being denied loans for the 1998 season.
Farmers in many regions face these problems, but there is a special concern for
farmers in the upper Midwest and the northeast who have been affected by weather
emergencies, and farmers in Georgia who have faced weather emergencies and lack
of settlements of outstanding civil rights cases, further complicating the
crisis.
Write or Call Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and your Congress
members. Tell them to:
- Fix the 1996 Farm Bill. A provision in the 1996 Farm Bill to
prevent access to new loans after a farmer has had a write-down through debt
restructuring or bankruptcy is denying thousands of farmers access to FSA credit
and guaranteed loans this year. Congress and the USDA must cooperate to assure
emergency legislation is passed to remove this prohibition on future loans if a
farmer has received a prior debt writedown.
- Waive the statute of limitations for civil-rights related cases.
The Justice Department has advanced the argument that USDA cannot settle credit
cases more than two years old under the provisions of the Equal Credit
Opportunities Act. However, these delays were the fault of the Agency and the
Equal Credit Act further stipulates that the Agency should not benefit from its
own negligence. If an administrative solution to this problem cannot be found
immediately, emergency legislation should also include language to waive the
statute of limitations for all unresolved civil rights complaints filed during
the period the Department was not conducting investigations or resolving cases.
- Waive administrative offsets. The FSA Credit agency implemented
with lightening speed new policy to offset any past due amounts to the U.S.
Treasury from any new payments or loans. The Secretary has, and should use, the
authority to waive administrative offsets, particularly during this period when
many farmers were receiving livestock disaster payments and civil rights and
appeals cases remain unresolved.
- Address shared appreciation mortgages issues. The Secretary should
take further action to address the issues surrounding the use of shared
appreciation mortgages. The new appraisal on which the appreciation is based
should not take into consideration farmer improvements when calculating the
share of appreciation the farmer must pay to the government.
Contact information:
Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman United
States Dept. of Agriculture 1400 Independence Ave. SW, Rm. 200A Washington,
DC 20250 202-720-2791
Your Senator or Representative:
The Honorable ____________ US
Senate/House of Representatives Washington, DC Zip Senate: 20510; House:
20515
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