Evening star., 1943-04-13
House Unit Asks
Ban on FSA and
Crop Payments
707 Millions Sought
For Agriculture in
Next Fiscal Year
By the Associated Press.

bS tIle Associated Press.
Abolition of the Farm Security
Administration, abandonment of
the crop insurance program and
niscontinuance of parity pay
inents on the 1943 and 1914
crops were recommended today
by the House Appropriations
Committee in sending a $7O7,-
O4O,844 Agriculture Department
supply bill to the floor.
The funds recommended for the
departments operation for the fiscal
year starting July l were $20,939,25
more than current year appropri-
ations and $240,093, ,647 below budget
estimates. Included in the total was
S193, ,623, 900 for parity payments for
the 1912 crop year which were au-
thorized in last years appropriation.
but for which no funds were made
available at the time.
In recommending abolition of the
New Deal-sponsored FSA, created in
1887 and one of the favorite targets
of congressional criticism for several
years, the committee suggested that
its functions be transferred to the
Farm Credit Administration, which
was given the assignment of carry
ing on many FSA programs already
under way.
Own FSA Criticism Cited.
The committee said it had taken
full cognizance of the criticism
which has been leveled at the Farm
Security Administration over
period of years" and recalled its
own criticism of the agency last
year for lending excessive amounts
to individual borrowers, for indulg-
ing in land purchase program, for
the carelessness and ineficiency of
certain of its employees and for its
experiments in collective farming,
which seemed to resemble the collec-
twist practices followed in Russia"
A thorough and painstaking" in
vestigation this year, the committee
added, led it to the conclusion that
since the Farm Security Admins
tration is essentially a farm credit
agency, its functions should, in the
interest of better credit integration,
economy and efficiency, be trans
ferred to the Farm Credit Adminis-
tration, which has operated for
many years in the farm credit field
and has existing facilities to dis
charge these functions"
The committee recommended that
the FCA be given $1200O,000 for
rural rehabilitation and other func-
tions and $4O,0OO,OOO from Recon-
struction Finance Corp. funds for
loans.
In overriding Budget Bureau
recommendation that the bill con-
tain authorization for the incur
renee of obligations to provide full
parity for the crop years 1943 and
1914, the committee said 1t believed
observance of existing price con-
troll legislation or any other legisla-
ton affecting this matter, will af-
ford producers, either from loans or
from the market, the full parity
price,
Views on Crop Insurance.
Its recommendation for abolition
of the Federal crop insurance pro-
gram, the committee said, was based
on the showing made on insurance
of cotton and wheat and the convic-
ton that further operations will
eventuate even greater losses"
1t wrote into the bill safeguards
of existing binding contracts be-
tween the Federal Crop Insurance
Corp. and producers. but said the
program in general should be abol-
lshed as "the better part of wisdom
and sound policy" Appropriations
to the crop insurance agency were
| limited to expenditures for indemni-
| ties accruing on wheat and cotton
planted before August /, 1943, with
the stipulation that no insurance be
handled for the 1914 crop year.
Voluminous hearings on the bill
were filled with criticism of FSA
policies, notably by farm organiza-
tlons and members of Congress, but
there also was commendation of the
agency by others who contended it
was the salvation of financially
harassed farmers.
Headed by c. B. Baldwin, the FSA
had 417,600 active clients last De-
cember 81 and has made loans to
975000 since the program started.
Mr. Baldwin told the committee
the unpaid principal balance on
rural rehabilitation loans alone was
approximately $417,000,000.
Another Budget Bureau recon-.