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As I stated beore, the Anfuso bill is an attempt to reach a compromise between the positions expressed in these other bills and the position taken by some of those who have been opposed to this legislation in its entirety. Without objection, the clerk will list all of the bills being considered by the committee this morning.

The bills are as follows by number:

H. R. 271, H. R. 334, H. R. 852, H. R. 879, H. R. 1144, H. R. 1218, H. R. 2029, H. R. 2846, H. R. 2862, H. R. 3119, H. R. 3511, H. R. 4361, H. R. 4413, H. R. 5128, H. R. 5937, H. R. 6784, H. R. 6882. (H. R. 6784 is as follows:)

[H. R. 6784, 85th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, to exempt certain wheat producers from liability under the Act where all the wheat crop is fed or used for seed or food on the farm, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 335 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, is further amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

"(f) The Secretary, upon application made pursuant to regulations prescribed by him, shall exempt producers from any obligation under this Act to pay the penalty on, deliver to the Secretary, or store the farm marketing excess with respect to any farm for any crop of wheat harvested in 1957 or subsequent years on the following conditions:

"(1) That the total wheat acreage on the farm does not exceed 30 acres : Provided, however, That this condition shall not apply to farms operated by and as part of State institutions or religious or eleemosynary institutions;

"(2) That none of such crop of wheat is removed from such farm except to be processed for use as human food or livestock feed on such farm; "(3) That such entire crop of wheat is used on such farm for seed, human food, or feed for livestock, including poultry, owned by any such producer, or a subsequent owner or operator of the farm; and

"(4) That such producers and their successors comply with all regulations prescribed by the Secretary for the purpose of determining compliance with the foregoing conditions.

"Failure to comply with any of the foregoing conditions shall cause the exemption to become immediately null and void unless such failure is due to circumstances beyond the control of such producers as determined by the Secretary. In the event an exemption becomes null and void the provisions of this Act shall become applicable to the same extent as if such exemption had not been granted. No acreage planted to wheat in excess of the farm acreage allotment for a crop covered by an exemption hereunder shall be considered in determining any subsequent wheat acreage allotment or marketing quota for such farm."

SEC. 2. Section 334 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

"(h) Except as provided in section 335 (e) of this Act, no acreage seeded to wheat for harvest in 1958 or thereafter in excess of acreage allotments shall be considered in establishing future State, county, and farm acreage allotments. The planting on a farm of wheat of the 1958 or any subsequent crop for which no farm wheat acreage allotment was established shall not make the farm eligible for an allotment as an old farm pursuant to the first sentence of subsection (c) of this section nor shall such farm by reason of such planting be considered ineligible for an allotment as a new farm under the second sentence of such subsection."

SEC. 3. Section 335 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, is amended by striking out the period at the end of the first sentence of subsection (e) and inserting a colon and the following: "Provided, however, That any State in which for three successive years the annual acreage planted to wheat exceeds 35,000 acres, as determined by the Secretary, shall be deemed, beginning with the marketing year which begins in the second calendar year thereafter, to be within the commercial wheat producing area and the acreage planted to wheat in such State in such three years shall be taken into considera

tion in establishing State, county, and farm acreage allotments: Provided further, That any State placed in the commercial wheat producing area under the foregoing proviso shall remain therein except that if thereafter the annual acreage planted to wheat in such State is less than 25,000 acres for three consecutive years the Secretary may, at his discretion, designate such State as being outside the commercial wheat producing area if he determines that such designation would permit more efficient administration of this Act and the Agricultural Act of 1949."

Mr. ALBERT. The committee has received this morning under date of June 18, 1957, a report from the Department of Agriculture upon the Anfuso bill. The Department has previously expressed itself on bills similar to those introduced by other authors, in which the Department has favored this type of legislation. I have not had time to read the report. It has just come to my attention. I understand that other copies should be here before the committee adjourns this morning, so that all members may have copies. (The Department report is as follows:)

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
Washington, D. C.

Hon. HAROLD D. COOLEY,

Chairman, Committee on Agriculture,

House of Representatives.

DEAR CONGRESSMAN COOLEY: This is in reply to your request for a report on H. R. 6784, a bill to amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, to exempt certain wheat producers from liability under the act where all of the wheat crop is fed or used for seed or food on the farm, and for other purposes. We believe the bill is a step in the right direction but does not go far enough. We recommend that the exemption of wheat producers from liability under the act, where all of the wheat crop is fed or used on the farm for seed or food, be made applicable without limitation in the same manner as is provided in the proposed legislation for State, religious, or charitable institutions. However, in the absence of obtaining the greater exemption which we request, the Department would favor the enactment of H. R. 6784, with amendments as set forth in this report.

This bill would amend section 335 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, so as to (1) exempt certain wheat producers from marketing quota penalties with respect to any farm for any crop of wheat harvested in 1957 or subsequent years where all the wheat is fed or used for seed or human food on the farm, and (2) provide that any State in which for 3 successive years the annual acreage planted to wheat exceeds 35,000 acres shall be deemed, beginning with the marketing year which begins in the second calendar year thereafter, to be within the commercial wheat producing area, and that any State placed in the commercial area shall remain therein except that if thereafter the annual acreage planted to wheat in such State is less than 25,000 acres for 3 successive years the Secretary may, at his discretion, designate such State as being outside the commercial wheat producing area. The bill would also amend section 334 of the act to provide that no acreage seeded to wheat for harvest in 1958 or thereafter in excess of acreage allotments shall be considered in establishing future State, county, and farm acreage allotments.

Under the provisions of section 1 of the bill an exemption would be granted only to those wheat producers who comply with the following conditions: (a) That the total wheat acreage on the farm does not exceed 30 acres, excluding farms operated by State institutions or religious or eleemosynary institutions, (b) that none of the wheat is removed from the farm except for processing for use on such farm, (c) that the entire crop is used on the farm for seed, human food, or fed to livestock, including poultry, and (d) that producers on the farm and their successors comply with all regulations prescribed by the Secretary for the purpose of determining compliance with the foregoing conditions. Failure to comply with any of such conditions would cause the exemption to become null and void unless such failure was due to circumstances beyond the control of the producer. No acreage planted to wheat in excess of the farm acreage allotment for a crop covered by an exemption would be considered in

determining subsequent allotments or marketing quotas for the farm. This latter provision is somewhat comparable to a provision in existing legislation for durum wheat which in effect provides that any acreage seeded in 1957 in excess of the original allotment established for the farm shall not be considered in establishing future State, county, and farm acreage allotments. The Department feels that this section of the bill is very desirable and should be enacted into law.

Section 2 of the bill would (1) prohibit the use of excess wheat acreage in 1958 and subsequent years for historical purposes in determining future State, county, and farm acreage allotments and (2) prevent farms planting wheat without an allotment in 1958 and subsequent years from becoming eligible for an allotment in the following year as "old" wheat farms. Each of these provisions now apply to tobacco and the first now applies to all basic crops except wheat and corn. Enactment of this section of the bill would do much toward minimizing undesirable shifts in State and county wheat acreage allotments which are prevalent under the existing provisions of law. The shifting of wheat allotment acreage form one State to another and from county to county within a State as the result of overplanting farm wheat allotments is a matter of grace concern to complying producers. Even within counties complying farms must, under existing legislation, give up allotment acreage to cover the excess acreage on noncomplying farms. Unless legislative action is taken to alter this situation, the problem will become greater as we move into the future. We strongly urge the enactment of this section of the bill.

Section 3 of the bill as modified would provide (1) that any State in which the acreage planted to wheat for harvest as grain exceeds 35,000 acres for 3 successive years shall be deemed to be within the commercial wheat-producing area and the acreage so planted in such 3 years shall be taken into consideration in establishing State, county, and farm acreage allotments, and (2) that any State placed in the commercial area shall remain therein except that if thereafter the annual acreage planted to wheat for harvest as grain in such State is less than 25,000 acres for 3 successive years the Secretary may, at his discretion, designate such State as outside the commercial wheat-producing area. This section of the bill was, no doubt, designed to stabilize the commercial area by preventing certain States from moving in and out of such area from 1 year to the next. Under existing legislation the Secretary may designate a State as outside the commercial wheat-producing area only if the allotment for such State is 25,000 acres or less. We believe that the provisions of this section of the bill are necessary in order to stabilize the commercial wheat-producing area in future years and to implement the effective administration of the wheat production adjustment programs.

We recommend that the bill be modified as follows:

(a) Insert on line 9 of page 3 the words “as grain" immediately following the words "wheat for harvest," ;

(b) Insert on line 24 of page 3 the words "for harvest as grain" immediately following the words "planted to wheat," ;

(c) Insert on line 3 of page 4 the words "for harvest as grain" immediately following the words “acreage planted to wheat,”; and

(d) Insert on line 8 of page 4 the words "for harvest as grain" immediately following the words "annual acreage planted to wheat,".

We believe that farmers who might obtain an exemption from wheat marketing quota penalties because their entire wheat production is used on the farm where produced should be entitled to participate in the acreage reserve program on exactly the same basis as those farmers who avail themselves of the 15-acre exemption. We, therefore, recommend that there be added at the end of the bill a new section reading as follows:

"Section 114 of the Soil Bank Act (70 Stat. 196) is amended by changing clause (2) in the first sentence thereof to read as follows: '(2) in the case of a farm which is not exempted from marketing quota penalties under section 335 (f) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, the wheat acreage on the farm exceeds the larger of the farm wheat acreage allotment under such title or 15 acres, or'."

The Bureau of the Budget advises that there is no objection to the submission of this report.

Sincerely yours,

Mr. ALBERT. The Department is represented this morning by Mr. Walter C. Berger, and some of his associates. Mr. Berger is the Administrator of the Commodity Stabilization Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.

In order to get on, and without further preliminaries, Mr. Berger, the committee will be glad to hear from you at this time.

STATEMENT OF WALTER C. BERGER, ADMINISTRATOR, COMMODITY STABILIZATION SERVICE; ACCOMPANIED BY MARTIN SORKIN, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE ADMINISTRATOR, EARL MILLER, GRAIN DIVISION, AND HOWARD ROONEY, GENERAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Mr. BERGER. I would like for the record to name the people whom we have here as my assistants today.

We have Mr. Howard Rooney, of the General Counsel's Office, and Mr. Martin Sorkin, special assistant to me, and Mr. Earl Miller of the Grain Division, who has the responsibility of working out the acreage allotment and marketing quotas in our Grain Division in the Commodity Stabilization Service. They are here to help me answer any questions that you may have when I finish with my prepared

statement.

Mr. ALBERT. You may proceed.

Mr. BERGER. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, we have reviewed this proposed bill, H. R. 6784, and find that it has three major purposes.

1. To permit the growing of up to 30 acres of wheat on any farm under an exemption from the wheat marketing quota provisions provided all of the wheat produced is used on the farm for feed, seed, or human food. An exemption is provided from the 30-acre limitation on the farms operated by and as part of State institutions or religious or charitable institutions.

2. The acreage seeded to wheat for harvest in 1958 or thereafter in excess of acreage allotments shall not be considered in the establishment of future State, county, and farm acreage allotments. Also, the planting on the farm of wheat for 1958 and thereafter for which no farm allotment is established shall not make the farm eligible as an old wheat farm. If allotments are desired for such farms they must be considered as new wheat farms.

3. Any State in which for 3 successive years the wheat planted exceeds 35,000 acres shall generally become a commercial wheatproducing State.

I should like to discuss each of these provisions in order.

First, with respect to the exemption from the marketing quota penalty or storage requirements for the farm marketing excess, on farms growing up to 30 acres of wheat, all of which is fed, or used for seed or food on the farm where produced, this provision is to a certain extent in line with the Department's recommendations. Bills on this general subject have been recommended by the Department of Agriculture but have in the past failed of enactment.

94743-57-2

In the President's message to the Congress of January 9, 1956, he stated as follows:

Legislation already has passed the Senate and is pending in the House of Representatives which would exempt from marketing quotas those producers who use for feed, food, or seed on their own farms all the wheat they raise. Because of the failure to pass this legislation last year, the Department of Agriculture has been compelled by law to hale before the courts farmers whose only offense was to raise and feed wheat outside their quotas. Again the administration urges prompt enactment of this legislation. Correction of this problem should be delayed no longer.

We believe that the proposed bill, although a step in the right direction, does not go far enough. We recommend that the exemption of wheat producers from liability under the act where all of the wheat crop is fed or used for seed or food on the farm be applicable without limitation in the same manner as is provided in the proposed legislation for State, religious, or charitable institutions. However, in the absence of obtaining the greater exemption which we request, we would favor the enactment of H. R. 6784.

The purpose of this bill is to correct a situation which has arisen in connection with marketing quota operations for certain wheat producers who desire to use their entire output for feed and seed on the farm where produced, and who do not want to participate in the wheat price-support program.

Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, wheat producers subject to marketing quotas who harvest wheat in excess of their acreage allotment are subject to a marketing penalty on their farm margeting excess (unless they avoid or postpone the penalty by storage or delivery to the Secretary), whether they sell their wheat on the market or whether they feed it on their farms. The law is clear on this point and its constitutionality was upheld in Wickard v. Filburn (317 U. S. 111). Thus, farmers subject to quotas who produce wheat only for feed and seed and do not want price support on their crop are forced to curtail their operations or pay the penalty if they fail to do so.

Production of wheat for feed is, in general, confined to small farms in the feed-deficit areas.

Existing legislation exempts certain of these farms from marketing quota restrictions. For example, quotas are not applicable to any farm on which the wheat acreage does not exceed 15 acres or on which the normal production of the wheat acreage is less than 200 bushels.

Also, marketing quotas are not applicable to any farm in any State which has been designated by the Secretary as outside the commercial wheat-producing area. Any State for which the wheat acreage allotment is 25,000 acres or less, may be so designated by the Secretary.

H. R. 6784 broadens these existing exemptions to include those farmers in the commercial wheat producing area who harvest not more than 30 acres, who use all their wheat on the farm where grown for feed and seed, and who do not desire wheat price support. We believe that no maximum acreage limitation should be established for this type of wheat utilization. Insofar as this latter group of farmers is concerned, wheat marketing quota restrictions impose special hardships.

Although the consumption of wheat on farms where grown does affect interstate commerce, the exemption relating only to farms on

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