Advocates Pushing for Rural Cooperative Equity Fund

At a Senate Agriculture hearing on rural development in August, a number
of rural groups (including the National Cooperative Business Association,
the Independent Community Bankers Association, and a number of rural
telephone and electric cooperatives) urged the Committee to authorize and fund
legislation to create a new source of equity capital for cooperatives
and other rural businesses when they craft the Senate version of the Farm
Bill in the coming months. The groups endorsed the National Rural Cooperative
and Business Equity Fund Act, introduced last year by Senate Agriculture
Chairman Harkin and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. The Act was included as
part of the Securing a Future for Independent Agriculture Act of 2001 (S. 20)
introduced by Senator Daschle and others earlier this year.

The bill would create the Equity Fund, a private corporation, to invest
in value-added agricultural enterprises and other businesses in rural
America, with particular attention to producer-owned cooperatives. The fund would
be designed to attract private investment, but the federal government would
match the private investment and provide a federal guarantee on loans.
S. 20 authorizes $50 million for the Fund annually through 2003. 

For more information: 

Jeannine Kenney, mailto: jkenney@ncba.org National Cooperative Business
Association, 202-383-5456, 
Full text of Securing a Future for Independent Agriculture Act of 2001
(S.20)  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:S.20:

http://www.carbohydrateeconomy.org/library/admin/uploadedfiles/Carbohydrate_
Economy_e-Bulletin_-_October_2001.htm

Last Revised: August 27, 2001

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