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Statement About Signing the Emergency Livestock Credit Act of 1974

July 26, 1974

I AM signing today S. 3679, the Emergency Livestock Credit Act of 1974.

Through a carefully controlled program of loan guarantees, this bill will provide emergency assistance to livestock producers who have been caught in a recent cost-price squeeze. When production costs soared above sales levels in recent months, many producers--especially in the beef industry-began operating at a loss, and some still face the threat of bankruptcy. Without some form of assistance as provided in this bill, there might ultimately be a reduction in the number of producers, which would in turn lead to reduced supplies and higher prices for the consumers.

I am keenly aware, however, that this bill also presents some dangers. The assistance provided by this bill should not be used to bail out short-term speculators who are normally not engaged in livestock production, nor should it be used to refinance debt unrelated to recent market conditions or to offset potential losses by banking institutions, which are in a position to absorb some loss as a normal business risk. Instead, it should be used only in those cases where it can make the critical difference between a producer's ability to sustain continued meat production and a forced reduction in his production that in the long run would hurt the general consumer as well as the producer.

Accordingly, I am asking the Secretary of Agriculture to administer this act with deliberation and selectivity to ensure that it is used only by the bona fide producer of livestock who is critically affected by short-term changes in market conditions and whose continued production would be severely jeopardized in the absence of such assistance.

Note: As enacted, S. 3679, approved July 25, 1974, is Public Law 93-357 (88 Stat. 391).

The statement was released at San Clemente, Calif.

Richard Nixon, Statement About Signing the Emergency Livestock Credit Act of 1974 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/256153

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