276 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



The Chairman. I do not think the Secretary is b?ing castigated. 



Mr. Andresen. I cUd want to get down to some of the provisions of 

 this bill, so tb.at we can get some of the facts. There have been 

 several changes and back-tracking on this program since you made 

 your first statement here, but, as I understand, you divide the com- 

 modities into two categories. You have wheat, corn, cotton, and 

 tobacco in one category that v.dll be eligible for support loans. 



Secretary Brannan. No; the group one commodities are corn, 

 cotton, wheat, tobacco, whole milk, eggs, chickens, the meat animals — 

 hogs, beef, and lambs. 



Mr. Andresen. As I understood it, nulk and m.eat were perishable 

 commodities and would be eligible to the Government support pay- 

 ments, but not eligible for support loans. Which is right? 



Secretary Brannan. No; not at all. We just say that, as a support 

 mechanism., the production payment is more applicable and useful 

 m connection \\'ith the nonstorables. The only other division we 

 have talked about here at all is the general division between storables 

 and nonstorables and the m.ethod or device you use to support them. 

 To say it another way, we have tried to divide the commodities 

 between those which are most effectively supported by the production 

 payment m.ethod and those which are supported by the loans and 

 purchase agreement m.ethod. 



Mr. Pace. And the commodities you mention, Mr. Secretary, are 

 m.erely suggestions on your part, and you ask that Congress enumerate 

 the priority commodities. That is true, is it not? 



Secretary Brannan. It is very specific. It says "recommenda- 

 tions." 



Mr. Andresen. But you have recommended them to the commit- 

 tee, and you are asking the committee for advice and assistance in 

 naming the proper commodities. Is that right? 



Secretary Brannan. No, sir; not quite that. The committee 

 asked me to come up and make some recommendations, and I am 

 giving my recommendations. You will enact them into law, and then 

 I will go back and enforce them to the best of my ability. 



Mr. Andresen. The way you refer to it here, you refer to it as 

 "my program." That is your program. I think that is your state- 

 ment today, right at the begmning. You refer to it as your program. 



Secretary Brannan. Maybe I should not use the personal pronoun 

 so freely, but it just made it convenient. 



Mr. .A.NDRESEN. On page 20 of your original statem^ent, you men- 

 tioned as amongst the first commodities, 25 percent of the annual 

 cash receipts, cotton, corn, wheat, other grains, tobacco, oil seeds, 

 dry beans, peas, wool, and peanuts. Now, are these the commodities 

 upon which commodity loans and purchase agreements will be the 

 method used to support the price of those commodities? 



Secretary Brannan. That is our recommendation. 



Mr. .A.NDRESEN. Then, on fruits and vegetables, meat animals, 

 milk, butter fat, poultry and eggs — they will come under the support 

 payment program? 



Secretary Branna.n. Yes. 



Mr. Andresen. Then we have two groups there. Now, as I see it, 

 between 80 and 90 percent of the diet of the American people is found 

 in the latter group. Is that correct or approximately correct? 



Secretary Brannan. I am not certain, but it could very well be 

 correct. It would be somewhere in the neighborhood. 



