Durbin Meets with Farm Credit Nominee Leland Strom to Discuss Illinois Priorities

DURBIN MEETS WITH FARM CREDIT NOMINEE LELAND STROM TO DISCUSS ILLINOIS PRIORITIES

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with an Illinoisan, Leland Strom, who has been nominated by President Bush to serve on the Board of the Farm Credit Administration (FCA). In today's meeting, Durbin discussed the need for disaster aid for Illinois farmers and producers. Durbin also discussed the need to help those threatened with losing access to Farm Service Agency (FSA) credit on January 1st, 2007. Mr. Strom is in Washington D.C. today for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee.

"After 30 years of managing his family's third-generation farm in Kane County and more than 20 years of serving in leadership positions for the Farm Credit System, Mr. Strom is extremely well qualified to represent not only Illinois but the nation as one of three members on the FCA board," said Durbin. "Today, Mr. Strom and I discussed how to assist Illinois livestock producers facing increased feed costs, and farmers dealing with specialty crop losses."

The Farm Credit Administration is responsible for ensuring that the agriculture sector and rural America have access to a dependable source of credit. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the FCA at a time when farm prices were at an all-time low and the absence of credit meant that many farmers were being forced off their land due to unmanageable debt. FCA has continued to function as a guarantor that there will be a dependable stream of credit available to our farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.

In today's meeting, Durbin discussed an amendment offered this afternoon by Senator Conrad to the Agriculture Appropriations bill that would provide disaster assistance to farmers in Illinois and across the country dealing with drought. The provision would assist farmers who have lost more than 35 percent of their crop with a payment of 50 percent of the established crop price. It would also provide Supplemental Economic Loss Payments to help compensate farmers for significantly higher energy and fertilizer costs in 2005 and 2006. Furthermore, it would provide assistance for livestock producers facing increased feed costs, and additional assistance to farmers to compensate for specialty crop losses.

Durbin also discussed a provision in the 2002 Farm bill which waived the 15-year term limit placed on a producer's eligibility to receive Farm Service Agency guaranteed loans. The Farm Service Agency makes direct and guaranteed farm ownership and operating loans to family-size farmers and ranchers who cannot qualify for conventional loans because they have insufficient financial resources, have suffered financial setbacks from natural disasters, or whose resources are too limited to maintain profitable farming operations. FSA loans can be used to purchase land, livestock, equipment, feed, seed, and supplies. Without a legislative fix, this waiver will expire on January 1, 2007, leaving thousands of farmers ineligible for FSA credit. Today, the Illinois lawmaker co-sponsored legislation to extend the waiver one year so produces dealing with high gas prices and last year's drought can continue to access critical credit until the issue is more broadly addressed in the next Farm Bill.

Leland Strom is a lifelong resident of Kane County, Illinois. He is the third-generation farmer of Strom Farm, a family farm that has produced grain and livestock for more than 100 years. Mr. Strom has also held various leadership positions in the Farm Credit System (FCS), and served for six years as an advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on agriculture, labor, and small business issues.

http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=266429&&