Home News & Events Action Alert: Urgent Credit, Civil Rights Action Needed

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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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