Reagan OKs Transfer of Farm Loan Funds

President Reagan approved the transfer of $750 million from existing loan programs to keep up with the demand for farm operating loans this spring, a White House spokesman said Tuesday.

Deputy press secretary Albert R. Brashear said Reagan approved the release of emergency funds and other bookkeeping actions to help the Farmers Home Administration meet the demand after a meeting Tuesday afternoon with his Economic Policy Council.

“We think it will get us through,” the spokesman said, although he noted that the funds available this year are only a fraction of what was transferred last year before the 1985 Farm Bill put a $1.3-billion cap on the FmHA’s emergency loan fund.

Jeanne Kling of the FmHA said the actions mostly will affect the direct operating loans made by the agency.

About $1.5 billion was allocated for direct loans in the fiscal year that began last Oct. 1, but heavy loan activity was using it rapidly.

Kling said approval was given to transfer $700 million from emergency funds to farm operating loans. Also, she said, operating loan funds for the third and fourth quarter are being made available.

The moves also included the approval to shift $50 million in loan guarantees from “business and industrial” loan programs operated by the FmHA to farm operating loans made by other lenders and guaranteed by the agency.

Such transfers and advances have been common in recent years as hard-pressed farmers turn more heavily to the FmHA, often called the government’s lender of last resort, for money to meet operating expenses.

In a related action, President Reagan has chosen a senior Agriculture Department official, Frank W. Naylor Jr., to oversee the reorganized Farm Credit Administration.

Naylor and Marvin Duncan, senior deputy governor of the Farm Credit Administration, will be nominated to a new three-member board, Reagan announced Tuesday. The third member to be appointed by the President will be a Democrat, as required by law.

After Senate confirmation, Naylor, 47, will be designated chairman of the full-time board, whose members serve staggered terms.

The board will oversee operations of the cooperatively owned Farm Credit System.