Cout. Supt. Exc. CONTENTS Statement of— Page Hon. W. I. Myers, Governor, Farm Credit Administration, Washing- 20 ΠΙ AMENDMENT OF FARM CREDIT LAWS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1937 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURAL FINANCE, OF THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met in the committee room, Senate Office Building, at 10 a. m., Senator Alben W. Barkley (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Barkley (chairman of the subcommittee), Radcliffe, Hitchcock, Hughes, Steiwer, and Frazier. Senator BARKLEY. We have under consideration this morning H. R. 7909, a bill to amend the Federal Farm Loan Act, the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933, the Farm Credit Act of 1933, the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation Act, the Agricultural Marketing Act, and for other purposes. The bill will be printed in the record at this point. (The bill is here printed in full as follows:) [H. R. 7909, 75th Cong., 1st sess.] AN ACT To amend the Federal Farm Loan Act, to amend the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933, to amend the Farm Credit Act of 1933, to amend the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation Act, to amend the Agricultural Marketing Act, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Farm Credit Act of 1937". SEC. 2. Section 4 (b) of the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation Act (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 12, sec. 1020d) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraph: "When in the judgment of the directors conditions justify it, the corporation shall have power to extend, in whole or in part, any unpaid obligation under the terms of any mortgage, and to accept payment of any such obligation together with interest thereon, at a rate not exceeding five per centum per annum, during such period and in such amounts as may be agreed upon at the date of making such extension." SEC. 3. Section 31 (a) of the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933 (48 Stat. 47), as amended, is amended by striking out all prior to the first proviso and inserting in lieu thereof the following: (a) The Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation is authorized and directed to make available to the Land Bank Commissioner until July 1, 1938, out of the funds of the Corporation, the sum of $2,000,000, to be used for the purpose of making loans to the joint stock land banks organized and doing business under the Federal Farm Loan Act, as amended. Loans made by the Land Bank Commissioner under this section shall be made in the name and on behalf of the Corporation and shall bear interest at a rate not to exceed 4 per centum per annum. No loan shall be made under this section to any joint stock land bank except for the purpose of obtaining, for a period of one year from the date on which the loan is made, postponement of the foreclosure of first mortgages held by such bank on account of (1) default in the payment of interest and principal due under the terms of the mortgage, and (2) unpaid delinquent taxes, excluding interest and penalties, which may be secured by the lien of said mortgage:". 1 SEC. 4. The first sentence of section 4 (b) of the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation Act, as amended (U. S. C., 1934 edition, title 12, sec. 1020d), is amended to read as follows: "The corporation is further authorized to purchase from time to time, for cash, such consolidated farm loan bonds at such prices and upon such terms as may be approved by the board of directors of the corporation; to make loans to Federal land banks and joint stock land banks on the security of real estate mortgages, sheriff's certificates, sales contracts and real estate, upon such terms and conditions as shall be prescribed by the board of directors of the corporation: Provided, however, That loans outstanding to joint-stock land banks under this subsection shall not at any one time exceed in the aggregate $10,000,000; to make loans to Federal land banks on the security of consolidated farm loan bonds; and to invest its funds in mortgage loans made under section 32 of the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933, as amended." SEC. 5. (a) There shall be twelve districts in the continental United States, excluding Alaska, which shall be known as farm credit districts, and may be designated by number. The boundaries of the twelve Federal land bank districts existing as of the date of enactment of this Act shall be the boundaries of the respective farm credit districts. Such boundaries may be readjusted from time to time in the discretion of the Farm Credit Administration, provided that said districts shall be apportioned with due regard to the farm credit needs of the country and no such district shall contain a fractional part of any state. The designations "Federal land bank district" and "land bank district" wherever used in the Federal Farm Loan Act, or in any act amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, are changed to "farm credit district" and shall hereafter be deemed to refer to the farm credit districts provided for in this section. (b) There shall be in each farm credit district a farm credit board, which shall be selected as hereinafter specified and shall be composed of seven members. Each farm credit board shall include in its title the name of the city in which the Federal land bank, Federal intermediate credit bank, production credit corporation and regional bank for cooperatives of the district are located. Three of the members of said board shall be known as elected directors of whom one shall be chosen by national farm loan associations and borrowers through agencies, one shall be chosen by production credit associations of the district, and one shall be chosen by cooperatives which are stockholders or subscribers to the guaranty fund of the regional bank for cooperatives in the district. Three of the seven members shall be known as district directors, of whom two shall be appointed by the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration and one, who shall be known as the third district director, shall be chosen as hereafter in this section provided. The seventh member of such board shall be known as director at large and shall be appointed by the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration. (c) The directors of the Federal land bank of each district who are in office on the date of enactment of this Act shall constitute the farm credit board of the district and shall serve as members thereof for the remaining portions of the terms for which they were respectively elected or appointed as directors of the bank. Except as otherwise provided by this Act, the successor to each original member of the farm credit board shall be selected in the manner in which such member was selected as a director of the Federal land bank. (d) Each third district director shall be selected as follows: Each national farm loan association and borrower through agencies in the district shall nominate, in the manner provided herein for the nomination of candidates for elected directors, one candidate for such director, and from the three persons having the greatest number of votes as nominees the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration shall appoint such director. No third district director who is removed from office pursuant to section 17 (h) of the Federal Farm Loan Act may be nominated to succeed himself. (e) At least two months before an election of an elected director the Farm Credit Administration shall cause notice in writing to be sent to those entitled to nominate candidates for such elected director. In the case of an election of a director by national farm loan associations and borrowers through agencies, such notice shall be sent to all national farm loan associations and borrowers through agencies in the district; in the case of an election by production credit associations, such notice shall be sent to all production credit associations in the district; and in the case of an election by cooperatives which are stockholders or subscribers to the guaranty fund of the bank for cooperatives of the district, such notice shall be sent to all cooperatives which are stockholders or subscribers to the guaranty fund at the time of sending notice. After receipt of such notice those entitled to nominate the director shall forward nominations of residents of the district to the Farm Credit Administration. The Farm Credit Administra tion shall, from the nominations received within thirty days after the sending of such notice, prepare a list of candidates for such elected director consisting of the ten nominees receiving the highest number of votes. (f) At least one month before the election of an elected director the Farm Credit Administration shall mail to each person or organization entitled to elect the elected director the list of the ten candidates nominated in accordance with the preceding paragraph of this section. In the case of an election of a director by national farm loan associations and borrowers through agencies, the directors of each farm loan association shall cast the vote of such association for one of the candidates on the list. In voting under this section each such association shall be entitled to cast a number of votes equal to the number of stockholders of such association and each borrower through agencies shall be entitled to cast one vote. In voting under this section each production credit association shall be entitled to cast a number of votes equal to the number of the class B stockholders of such association. In voting under this section each cooperative which is a holder of stock in, or a subscriber to the guaranty fund of, the bank for cooperatives shall be entitled to cast one vote. The votes shall be forwarded to the Farm Credit Administration and no vote shall be counted unless received by it within thirty days after the sending of such list of candidates. In case of a tie the Farm Credit Administration shall determine the choice. The nominations from which the list of candidates is prepared, and the votes of the respective voters, as counted, shall be tabulated and preserved and shall be subject to examination by any candidate for at least one year after the result of the election is announced. (g) The terms of office of all directors shall be three years. Any vacancies that may occur in the farm credit board shall be filled for the unexpired term in the manner provided herein for the original selection of such directors. (h) Members of each farm credit board shall have been, for at least two years, residents of the district for which they are appointed or elected. From and after the date of enactment of this Act, no person shall be eligible for election or appointment as a member of any district farm credit board, and no person hereafter elected or appointed as a member of any district farm credit board shall be eligible to continue to serve as such, if in either case said person is an officer or employee of any Federal land bank, Federal intermediate credit bank, production credit corporation or bank for cooperatives. No district director, excepting any third district director selected as hereinabove specified, shall, during his continuance in office, be a director, officer, or employee of any institution, association, or partnership engaged in the business of lending money or of making or selling land mortgage loans, except an institution or association under the supervision of the Farm Credit Administration. (i) No person shall be eligible for appointment or election as an administrative or executive official of a Federal land bank, Federal intermediate credit bank, or of any corporation or bank organized pursuant to the Farm Credit Act of 1933, or as a member of any farm credit board, or shall continue to hold office as such member, if such person has been finally adjudged guilty of a felony, or finally adjudged liable in damages in any civil proceeding for fraud, in any State or Federal court. (j) Subject to the approval of the Farm Credit Administration members of each farm credit board shall receive such compensation as may be authorized by the board, including a reasonable allowance for necessary expenses in attending meetings of said board and directors' meetings. Such compensation shall be paid by the Federal land bank of the district, and such bank shall be reimbursed therefor by the Federal intermediate credit bank, production credit corporation and bank for cooperatives of the district in such proportion and in such manner as may be fixed by the farm credit board subject to the approval of the Farm Credit Administration. Except with the approval of the Farm Credit Administration, no member of any farm credit board shall receive compensation or allowances for any services rendered such institutions, in his capacity as director or otherwise, for more than thirty days in any one calendar year, exclusive of the period for which compensation is paid for attendance at meetings of said board and at directors' meetings. (k) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to abrogate or repeal the second paragraph of section 4 of the Federal Farm Loan Act, as amended, or to affect the applicability of any other act of Congress under which agricultural credit laws of the United States may be made applicable to territories or insular possessions of the United States. SEC. 6. Each farm credit board provided for in this Act shall have power, subject to the approval of the Farm Credit Administration (a) To employ joint officers and employees for the Federal land bank, Federal intermediate credit bank, production credit corporation and regional bank for |