77iTu CoaoRss HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES I RuoarBd e8ioin f No. 2212

AMEND SECTION 344 (H) OF THE AGRICULTURAL ADJUST-MENT ACT OF 1938, AS AMENDED

JuNo 5, 1942.-Committed to the Committee of the Wh House on he stateof the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. WICKERSHAM, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted thefollowing

REPORTCTo accompany H. R. 7115)

The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred, the bill(H. R. 7115) to promote the war effort by facilitang the plaitingof the full allotted acreage of cotton as recommended b the Secretaryof Agriculture as the Nation's war goal having considered the same,report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass, with the follow-ig amendments:

Page 1, line 8, change the word "years" to "year"; change the word"semicolon" to"period".;Page 1, line 9, following the second "and" ad pecediig the worid

parity" insert the following new wording: "during the year 1942".Page 2, line 2, following the word "transferred" and the period,

strike out the balance of the line; also strike all of lines 3 to 7, inclusive.'STATEMENT

This bill provides that if a farmer temporarily gives up part of WSallotted cotton acreage because of the fact be-does not desire to plantthat acreage to cotton, during the',year: 1942, both parity and soil-conservation payments will remain with the farmer towhom theoriginal allotment was made. The farmer who receives the allottedacreage receives neither payment. The only privilege that passes tohim is the right to market cotton grown on the emporril grwadditional acreage under the quota provisions voted by the cottongrowers.

There is shown below a letter from the Secretary of AgricultureClaude R. Wickard, expressing the views of the Department and theBureau of the Budget on this propousd legislation.

2. -AMEND AGRICVLTURAL ADJlUTMeXT ACT Or 19388D*PARTMYNT OF AnaCuLTux*,

Hon; H. P. FULMZR,Chairman, Commite on Aprimture,- House of Repre"Wives.

DEAR MR. FULMER: This is in response to your request of May 21 1942, for areport on H. R. 7116, a bill to promote the war effort by facilitating the plantingof the full allotted acreage of cotton as recommended by the Secretary of Agri-culture as the Nation's war goal. The bill amends section 344 (h) of the Agri-cultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended.

In corlahewith piagrpW (a) bfthe bill, it" would e neeary to establiihallotments for future years without regard to the'reallocftioos under section 344(h) of the act, as''iende&d'by this bill. In establishing cotton-acreage allot-ments, no consideration is given to previous allotments. Rather, the futureallotment is limited by the highest planted plus diverted acreage during any of the3 previous years. Thus, whether a farmer releases cotton-acreage allotment ornot, the limiting ,factor on future allotments will be based on his plantings andnot thesizeofis i allotient.' As to farmers who receive additional acreage,' itwould be necessary to adjust their cotton history so as to reflect what part of theplanting was due to the increased allotment resulting from the reallocation ofallotments. This, of course, would require an individual determination for eachof these farms which would entail considerable administrative difficulties, as wellas additional expense A,j .P. t graph (b) of HIR. 7'li5 Would dfrtt the dA'kngiof parity 'payfiient Adagricultural conservation payments .on. the basis of the original cotton acreageallotment for farms where unused allotments are transferred between farms formarketing quotas. As you know, cotton acreage allotments for fam are estab-lished under the Agricultural Adustmenlt Act of 1938, as amended, to divide theavailable market for cotton equitably among al cotton farmers, with due con-sideration for the rights of consumers and small producers and the economicfactors involved in the growing of cotton., The oil Conservation and DomesticAllotment Act as amended, although not primarily concerned with the marketingof cotton, is designed to give fair and equitable treatment to all farmers, par-tidulariy to eniallfarmets -in apportioning acreage allotments and making pay-ments for comnpliance witii thse allotments, due reafdaIo bellig given, to teinterests,of consumers. In view of these considerations it has b en eded, asa matter ,of administrative; policy cositent Tithe the. purposes of the two at t-utes,' that the' acreage allotments for the purposed of marketing quotas shibete same 'a the allotment for te 'purposed of the agricultUral conservation andparity payment programs. To permit a producer to release a porti6n of the'ori-,al allotment onthe farm and yet retain-all payments with respect thereto would

result in the determination of two allotments for such a farm. This would in-crease considerably the ladFninistrative expenses maintaining additional recordsandwonldlikely ,resitin confusion among the farmers.

In tthis connecting, your attention is invited to the fact that section' 349 of theAgricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, provides that any person whoknowingly overplants.his marketing-quota-acreage allotment for-cotton shall 'notbe'eligible'for any payment whatsoever under the agricultural conservation pro-gram for that year.

Paragraph (b) of the bill further provides for waiving for farms receivingadditional allotments from the reallocation of released allotments, the provisoiA; section 844 (h) of the act limiting allotments made under such subeection to40 percent of the tilled, aereage on such farms. In the greater part of the CottonBelt the 1942 plantingg season for cotton is already past. Unused allotmentswhere'released'bk' operators wer 'reallocated tfothe, farmsodthehe basis of thepresent provisions' of section '344 (h), thereby limiting allotments o66these fartsto 40 percent of the tilled. acreage.' The proposed change would operate to in-.craseraellotmentbsfor 194,in ,res, where the plantingseason is still in prodand to place in complianefaarms n which producers have planted or will plant?mote than 40 percent of t'he tilled land on their farms in cotton iia'on which 'theacreage planted, ot which Will be planted, to cotton exceeds 'thle respective farmallotments. Furthermore, between 35 and 40 percent of the tilled acreggformost frmsis already allottqd to cottonin the areas in which the enactment ofthis bill would result in larger cotton allotments in 1942. This compares. withan average of about 27 percent of tilledacreage allotted to cotton over fhe CottonBelt as a whole.

AMEND AGRICULTURIAL ADiJeflLW Aar OF l 0asAbout 95 percent of the cotton produced hi aea in which the proposed amend-

ment would tend to increase obtctn alloumets for 1942 is less than 1 inch Instaple length. Our present sIpply of these short-staple ottos is about doubleoUr needs on the basis Of the present rate of consumption. The Department, aindicated i the pross release of March 4, 1942, not only requested farmers toplant up to their full allotments, but also recommended a larger production withinthe allotments of cotton of a staple length of 1 inch or more.

For these reasons the Department hoes not favor the enactment of this bill.The Bureau of the budget advise that it has no objection to the submission ofthis report.

oazenyyourC.uuI.W z ,CLUrDE Rx WICag,

Secretary.CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with paragraph 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of theHouse of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the billas reported are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omittedis enclosed in black brackets, new matter is printed in italics, existinglaw in which no change is proposed is shown in roman):

(Publc 411, 75th Con&)APPORTIONMENT OF NATIONA ALLOTMENT

SEC. 844 (h) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, the cottonacreage allotment for any farm for 1938, 1939, and each subsequent year, aftermaking the allotments provided in subsectioti (g), shall be increased by suchamount as may be necessary to provide an allotment of not less than 50 per centumof the sum of the acreage planted in cotton in 1937 and the acreage diverted fromcotton production in 1937 under the agricultural conservation program, as de-termined for each farm in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secre-tary and for any crop year any part of the aerbage allotted to individual farms inthe State which it is determined, in accordance with regulations prescribed by theSecretary, will not be planted to cotton in the year for which the alotment is made,shall be deducted from the allotments to such farnls and ma be apportioned, inamounts determined by the Secretary to be fair and reasonable, preference beinggiven to farms in the same county receiving allotments which the Secretarydetermines are inadequate and not representaUve in view of the past production ofcotton and the acreage diverted from the production of cotton on such farms underthe agricultural conservation program in the immediately preceding year: Pro'vided, That any such transfer of allotment shall not affect apportionment of eitheroriginal allotte. or transferee for any subseauent year , and dui the year 194parity and soil conservation payments eW remain the origs= allotted in thsame manner as though no portion of allotment had been temporarily transferred.: Provided, That this subsection shall not operate to raise the cotton acreage ofany farm above 40 per centum of the acreage on such farm which is tilled annuallyor in regular rotation, as determined under regulations prescribed by the Sretar.

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