that in the case of the soil bank that they have benefited as much by growing the crop as by putting it into the acreage reserve program. Mr. POAGE. You seem to ignore the fact that farmers cannot change their decisions every 2 weeks, that when legislation is passed, when they are told to do something, it is important that they be allowed to go ahead and do it. I did not vote for the acreage reserve in 1958. I opposed it. I said I was against it. But the majority of the House thought otherwise and the Department thought otherwise. And the President signed the bill and it became the law, and it is law. Therefore, the people were entitled to rely on it regardless of what Bob Poage thought about it. They were entitled to act on it regardless of what Bob Poage thought about it. My views became unimportant when it became the law. Those farmers all over the country had a right to rely on the program which was written into the law, and they had a right to assume that they could do what the law told them they could do. And they began making their plans, not in October, not in January, but they began making their plans last July, what they were to grow. They had to make plans, because most farmers have to give consideration how to finance their crops. Most of them in my part of the country, if they haven't got their plans made by the first of January, they can't make a crop. It is too late. Mr. MCMILLAN. People do not grow corn in my district for sale. They grow enough for their own use. With the acreage they have been allotted they will have to sell out their livestock. I am sure of that. If they do not comply with the allotment they will not have the advantage of the soil bank on tobacco and cotton. Mr. POAGE. That is correct. So I am surprised that the Department would be so determined to bring these people in and lay something on them. If they want to, I still raise the question, why don't they come up with an alternative? They know what the problem is. They know who is getting hurt. Why don't they come up and suggest how to give them relief? Possibly these counties should be left in the commercial areas but I would like the Department to give me some reason for not taking them out from the commercial corn area. I know that is not what this bill does. I simply asked you why we don't adopt some other approach, if this bill does not do what we thought it would? Mr. DOGGETT. We would have to explain to a corn farmer in Mr. Hagen's district why he should run under a different set of rules than in Mr. McMillan's district. Mr. POAGE. You said they ought to operate under those rules in Mr. McMillan's district? Mr. DOGGETT. We are talking about two different laws here. And I do not know which one to discuss. If you will tell me Mr. POAGE. We are not talking about any law, but to wipe out the entire corn area. Didn't the Secretary ask us to do that? Mr. DOGGETT. That has not been done. But this law-no, it has not been done. Mr. POAGE. I know it has not. Mr. DOGGETT. This law will not affect that situation. If you take them all out then we have got this bill which would not be applicable. Mr. POAGE. I am asking why you couldn't do it the other way. All we want is relief. We do not care whether it is done one way or an other way. You say you do not like to do it the way Mr. McMillan proposes. Why not do it another way? Mr. DOGGETT. This is a different set of rules for the 38 counties that we are making an exception of because they came in this year. Mr. POAGE. You have still a different set of rules for the 2,000 counties that never have been in the commercial corn area. Mr. DOGGETT. Oh, yes, but then that is according to the law, too. Mr. POAGE. Why don't they eliminate some of the rules? We don't give them a different set of rules. We give them the same set of rules for the 2,000 counties. Mr. DOGGETT. You have to give us a bill to comment on. Mr. POAGE. I think the only smart thing to do is to excuse you and thank you for coming down here and ask you to come back next week when we will have another bill introduced. You know what the bill will be. But if you can't talk about it until it is introduced and we will introduce it and ask you to come back again. We are very much obliged to you gentlemen. Mr. POAGE. I know. Your bill does not do what you want it to do. Now you know what you have got to do. Mr. JOHNSON. In arriving at whether a county comes under the commercial corn area do you consider the sweet corn grown? Mr. WALKER. It is not included in the estimate. Mr. JOHNSON. I thought in some of the Southern States that it was. Mr. WALKER. It is field corn excluding silage. Mr. POAGE. Are there any further questions? If not, you are excused. We will have another meeting on the same thing tomorrow. Mr. COFFMAN. This bill that you have in mind Mr. POAGE. I do not think it would help to talk to us about it this morning. We will introduce the bill and hear from you tomorrow morning. Mrs. DOWNEY. We have a short meeting in the morning of 10 to 15 minutes at 10:30. Mr. POAGE. We will meet at 10 o'clock, and hear them before 10:30. The open session will adjourn. We will go into executive session. (Whereupon, at 11:05 a. m., the subcommittee went into executive session.) COUNTIES IN COMMERCIAL CORN-PRODUCING AREAS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1958 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON LIVESTOCK AND FEED GRAIN OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10:10 a. m., pursuant to recess, in room 1308, New House Office Building, Hon. W. R. Poage (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Poage (presiding), Hill, and Simpson. Also present: Representative McMillan; John Heimburger, counsel; Mabel C. Downey, clerk. (H. R. 10843 is as follows:) [H. R. 10843, 85th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To amend section 114 of the Soil Bank Act with respect to compliance with corn acreage allotments Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 114 of the Soil Bank Act is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: "Notwithstanding any other provision of this section-(1) no person shall be ineligible to receive payments or compensation under an acreage reserve contract for 1958 by reason of the fact that the corn acreage on the farm exceeds the farm acreage allotment for corn if the county in which such farm is located is included in the commercial corn producing area for the first time in 1958; (2) no person shall be ineligible to receive payments or compensation under a conservation reserve contract by reason of the fact that the corn acreage on the farm exceeds the farm acreage allotment for corn if such contract was entered into prior to January 1 of the first year for which the county is included in the commercial corn producing area: Provided, That the foregoing provisions of this sentence shall apply only to a farm for which an 'old farm' corn allotment is established for such first year. For purposes of this provision, a contract which has been terminated by the producer under the program regulations by reason of the fact that the county in which the farm is located was included in the commercial corn-producing area for the first time in 1958, and which is reinstated, shall be deemed to have been entered into as of the original date of execution of such contract." Mr. POAGE. The committee will please come to order. We are here for further consideration of the legislation considered day before yesterday relating to the requirement of cross compliance in those counties that were brought into the commercial corn area for the first time this year. Mr. McMillan has introduced a new bill. Mr. HEIMBURGER. This is not the new bill. This is the old bill, Mr. Chairman. Mr. POAGE. That was introduced the 17th of February. Mr. HEIMBURGER. Mr. Chairman, I can tell you what the new bill intends to do while we are getting it up here. The new bill says-let me start off this way. With respect to the conservation reserve contracts the provisions of the new McMillan bill are precisely the same as the previous one. Anyone who has entered into a conservation reserve contract prior to January 1 of the year in which his county is made a commercial corn county would have that contract unaffected by the fact that he was thereafter under acreage allotments on corn. As to the acreage reserve contracts, the bill simply provides that no person shall be ineligible to receive payments under an acreage reserve contract in 1958 merely by virtue of the fact that he has overplanted his corn allotment, if the county in which his farm is situ ated was put into the commercial corn area for the first time in 1958. Mr. POAGE. In other words, it simply does not require cross compliance. It would simply suspend that provision for 1958 only as to all of the 38 counties which were brought into the commercial corn area this year. Mr. MCMILLAN. It is not compulsory. Mr. HEIMBURGER. It is entirely optional and it does not take the counties out of the commercial corn area, Mr. McMillan. It simply waives the requirement in the Soil Bank Act that they must be in compliance on all of their acreage allotments. Mr. MCMILLAN. They do not have to use this bill, do they? Mr. HEIMBURGER. It would be up to the individual, Mr. McMillan. He could use his option. He either signs up in the soil bank or he does not, but if he signs an acreage reserve contract to put cotton or tobacco or some other crop in the soil bank, he will not be deprived of his payment on account of the fact that he might overplant his corn allotment this year, and this year only. Mr. MCMILLAN. That is what I thought, but I wanted to be certain. Mr. POAGE. You are satisfied with the bill, Mr. McMillan? Mr. MCMILLAN. Yes. I wanted to be certain that was included. Mr. POAGE. Mr. Doggett, have you had time to understand what the bill is? STATEMENT OF HOWARD DOGGETT, SOIL BANK DIVISION, COMMODITY STABILIZATION SERVICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; ACCOMPANIED BY RAYMOND J. POLLOCK, DIRECTOR, GRAIN DIVISION, COMMODITY STABILIZATION SERVICE; CLAUDE COFFMAN, ATTORNEY, GENERAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE; AND THOMAS B. WALKER, GRAIN DIVISION Mr. DOGGETT. Well, I think so, Mr. Chairman. We discussed this. If we had had this bill the other day, I think that we could have stated the Department's position on it. We discussed this situation exactly as it is in this bill, and it was the Department's feeling that we were making a separate set of rules for these 38 counties that was not justified. It is not fair to the person who was in the acreage reserve or in the commercial corn county rather, prior to January 1 to make him live with his corn allotment in order to be eligible for acreage reserve payments and let these other folks not do so. Although they have only recently been notified, there |