Mr. HEIMBURGER. I would like for you to be prepared to satisfy our curiosity on that point. I do not think it needs to be in your formal statement, but it is quite clear from reference to the legislative history of this measure that most of us thought that that would be the effect of our provision in this, that no excess of allotments would be counted for this purpose. Mr. ALBERT. I thought the base was open. Mr. HEIMBURGER. The Department said so. I do not know how the misunderstanding came about. Mr. ALBERT. Let the record show that the committee is officially adjourned subject to the call of the Chair. (Whereupon at 12:15 p. m., the hearing was adjourned, subject to the call of the Chair.) WHEAT ACREAGE ALLOTMENTS-PRICE SUPPORT WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1958 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a. m., in room 1308, New House Office Building, Hon. Paul C. Jones presiding. Present: Representatives Jones, Albert, Watts, Jennings, Belcher, Smith, and Hill. Also present: Mabel Downey, clerk. Mr. JONES. The meeting will come to order. We have waited for 8 minutes. While we don't have too many members present, I know that you gentlemen are busy, and I know that we do want to get this testimony in the record. This is a meeting of the Wheat Subcommittee and we have several bills. They are H. R. 9814, H. R. 9819, H. R. 9869, H. R. 10011, and H. R. 10228. (The bills referred to are as follows:) [H. R. 9814, 85th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 to allow acreage planted to the 1958 crop of winter wheat in excess of wheat acreage allotments to be considered in establishing such allotments for the future Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first sentence of subsection (h) of section 334 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 is amended by inserting after "1958" the following: "(other than acreage seeded to wheat in 1957 for harvest in 1958)". [H. R. 9819, 85th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 to allow acreage planted to the 1958 crop of winter wheat in excess of wheat acreage allotments to be considered in establishing such allotments for the future Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first sentence of subsection (h) of section 334 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 is amended by inserting after "1958" the following: "(other than acreage seeded to wheat in 1957 for harvest in 1958)". [H. R. 9869, 85th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To compute wheat acreage allotments on the basis of allotted acres Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 334 (h) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, is amended and reenacted to read as follows: "(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no acreage 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 in the commercial wheat-producing area 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." [H. R. 10011, 85th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 to allow acreage planted to the 1958 crop of winter wheat in excess of wheat acreage allotments to be considered in establishing such allotments for the future Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first sentence of subsection (h) of section 334 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 is amended by inserting after "1958" the following: "(other than acreage seeded to wheat in 1957 for harvest in 1958)." [H. R. 10228, 85th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To amend section 101 of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended, relating to price support on wheat Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 101 of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended (7 U. S. C. 1421), is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: "(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of law the level of price support for the 1958 harvest of wheat shall be not less than $2 per bushel." Mr. JONES. I think Mr. Manwaring, if you are ready to go on to represent the Department, we will be glad to hear from you at this time. Do you have a prepared statement or do you want to just discuss the various bills? STATEMENT OF H. LAURENCE MANWARING, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, PRODUCTION ADJUSTMENT, COMMODITY STABILIZATION SERVICE Mr. MANWARING. I have a prepared statement, but I think we will probably have to include in the statement some additional information. Largely what this statement will do is give you information rather than any conclusion as to what the Department thinks should be done. There is just a lot of information bearing on the subject indicating what would happen if you did this, what will happen if you did this, what will happen if you did that. I think maybe we should bring that out before the committee and this statement starts it and then we can go on from there. Mr. JONES. I think that would be well to do, to at least get all the facts and then if the Department has a recommendation, of course, we would be glad to have that for the record. Mr. MANWARING. The statement addresses itself to H. R. 9814 primarily. Mr. JONES. Each of the other bills are duplicates or the same as H. R. 9814, by Mr. Breeding; H. R. 9819, by Mr. Chenowith; H. R. 10011, by Mr. Hill. I believe they are all identical bills. Mr. MANWARING. We assumed if we commented and gave some data on 9814, we would have pretty well covered the others. If there were any other features or any other information you wanted, we would cover that. Mr. JONES. Mr. Watts has suggested-have you had a chance to look at this H. R. 9869, a bill by Mr. Thomson of Wyoming? Are you familiar with that bill? Mr. MANWARING. Yes, we have studied it, and we can talk about that, although it is not included in this statement. Mr. WATTS. It is in that direction. Mr. MANWARING. But it doesn't have the same effect, we will put it that way, Congressman. Mr. JONES. Suppose you just proceed with your statement, then. We can get down to any of the additions you want to make and have an opportunity to ask any questions that might present themselves to the members of the committee. Mr. MANWARING. We will do that. I have with me Mr. Satterfield and Mr. Dyess, who may want to help me with some information as we go along. Mr. JONES. We will be glad to have them, Mr. Manwaring. Mr. MANWARING. In reporting on H. R. 6784, which upon passage became Public Law 85-203, the Department took a strong position in recommending the enactment of section 2 of the bill. Our position since that time has not changed. We are as much in favor of it today as we were then. It is now evident that our previously expressed concern relative to the shifting of State and county wheat acreage allotments was well founded. Official estimates released by the Crop Reporting Board of the Department indicate that in many States where excessive seedings of wheat have been prevalent heretofore, the seedings of 1958 crop winter wheat on noncomplying farms will likely exceed the allotments by as large an acreage as for any other recent year. Thus, if such acreages were to be considered for acreage history purposes, it would result in further shifts in State and county wheat acreage allotments. The enactment of H. R. 9814 would give special treatment to producers of 1958 crop winter wheat to the exclusion of all others. It would give noncomplying farms an advantage over complying farms in the determination of wheat acreage allotments for 1960 and subsequent years since it would allow all excess acreage of 1958 crop winter wheat on noncomplying farms to be counted for history purposes. Current indications are that excessive seedings of 1958 crop winter wheat have followed about the same pattern that prevailed in 1957. For 1957, the excess wheat acreage on noncomplying farms in a few of the winter wheat States was as follows: Missouri, 765,000 acres; Illinois, 579,999 acres; Indiana, 370,000 acres; Ohio, 290,000 acres; Michigan, 280,000 acres; North Carolina, 177,000 acres; Arkansas, 145,000 acres; and South Carolina, 124,000 acres. It is expected that the 1958 excess wheat acreage on noncomplying farms in some of these States will even be higher than in 1957. In. the Great Plains States as a whole, the aggregate acreage seeded to wheat in 1957 is less than the total allotted acreage of wheat. H. R. 9814 would give further impetus to the undesirable shifts in State and county wheat acreage allotments which have been occurring in the past. The old established wheat producing areas, which |