Abdnor, Hon. James, chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture and Transportation: Opening statement. Edelman, Mark A.,_agriculture and public policy economist, South Dakota Kessler, William, D.D.S., Brookings, SD. Daniel, William, representative, South Dakota Livestock Association (III) TAX POLICIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. AGRICULTURE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1985 CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND TRANSPORTATION OF THE JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in the Memorial Arts Center, Brookings, SD, Hon. James Abdnor (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senator Abdnor. Also present: Dale Jahr, professional staff member. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ABDNOR, CHAIRMAN Senator ABDNOR. The Subcommittee on Agriculture and Transportation of the Joint Economic Committee will come to order. I certainly want to welcome you all here today, who are vitally interested in this subject of taxation as it relates to agriculture. This is getting to be an everyday occurrence with me. This is my third big meeting on agricultural problems in the last 3 days. We started out with this week with our committee's kickoff, rearing on the subject of rural America and its problems, last Monday in Freeman. It was a full-day session and well over 400 people there. I need not tell you about the big hearing and meetings we had out in Pierre yesterday, not by my committee, but we participated in it. It was an excellent day. Today we want to follow with another hearing on the Joint Economic Committee. As long as I have the staff here, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to discuss a topic that has been close to my heart and I feel quite strongly about, and I'm sure that you do, too. Before I go any further, I want to tell you that this committee, the Joint Economic Committee, of which I'm vice chairman-the chairman is Dave Obey of Wisconsin-is made up of both the House and Senate. You all know the South Dakota State Legislature and the Governor will be coming to Washington within the next 2 weeks. I think and I know they certainly deserve a forum to be heard by Congress, and for that matter, by the White House and by the national media and all of Washington's decisionmakers. Because of that, and as vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, I'm arranging to give them that opportunity. They're going to appear at the Joint Economic Committee meeting. It's either going to be February 25 or 26, which ever best works out for them. It's (1) |