Statement Announcing Continuation of Advance Payments to Participants in the Feed Grain Program for 1969

I HAVE today instructed the Secretary of Agriculture to continue, for 1969 only, the practice followed in recent years making available a 50 percent advance payment to participants in the feed grain program. I have taken this action because I feel the Government has a moral obligation to honor this implied commitment.

Initial announcement of the 1969 feed grain program on December 26, 1968, did not indicate any change in the way advance payments were to be made to farmers. The budget submitted to the Congress on January 15, 1969, stated that the advance payment rate was being reduced from 50 percent to 25 percent in 1969, and that no advance payments would be made for the 1970 program.

A great many feed grain producers have been cooperating with this Federal Government program for crop diversion over the years. We feel farmers are entitled to proper and sufficient notice about any change in the ground rules on such payments. Many of them are already beginning to sign up for the program.

The major reason for the initiation of an advance payment system on feed grains some 8 years ago was to bolster a sagging agricultural economy by advancing the actual receipt of benefit payments by the farmer. Our appraisal as to whether or not that reason will be relevant later on this year will influence the decision on advance payments in 1970.

As a result of my decision, budget outlays for the current fiscal year will rise by $168 million in comparison with the expenditure figures presented by the outgoing administration. However, if there are no advance payments in 1970, the combined effect for the 2 fiscal years 1969 and 1970 will be approximately as contemplated in the budget document.

In view of the serious budget problem which we now face in the current fiscal year, I have directed the Secretary of Agriculture to recommend to the Director of the Budget specific areas in which savings might be obtained to offset as much as possible the additional outlays which my decision requires.