House Majority leader Thomas Foley(D-Wash.) has urged Congress to give the farm credit system a
few more months to reorganize itself before rushing into a
federal rescue of the system, a senior aide to Foley said.
    Gene Moos, agricultural aide to the Majority leader, told
Reuters while Foley believes action will be necessary later
this year to rescue the system, a bail-out package is not
necessarily needed immediately.
    Foley's view appears to differ with the Senate leadership
who have said they hope to have farm credit legislation under
consideration before Congress breaks for Easter April 9.
    Sen. David Boren (D-Okla.) chairman of the Senate
Agriculture subcommittee responsible for the farm credit issue,
last week pledged to consider a bill before Easter. Boren said
his subcommittee would proceed even if neither the system's
regulator, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) nor the system
itself ask for aid.
    Chairman of the FCA Frank Naylor, like Foley, has 
expressed caution about rushing to a bail-out, prefering to
wait a few months and keep pressure on the system to reform
itself, farm credit sources said.
    "He (Foley) is willing to give Mr. Naylor some time in this
regard," Moos said.
    Moos predicted Congress will begin serious action on a
rescue package sometime this summer. Any package of legislation
is unlikely to include large federal outlays of money, he said.
    "I  don't see a big infusion of federal bucks," said Moos,
adding that the more likely outcome will be federal guarantees
of borrower stock and bonds held by investors.
 Reuter
