South Dakota Legislature Descends on Washington

WASHINGTON — Virtually the entire South Dakota Legislature marched through Washington today to tell Congress, the White House and anyone else who would listen that the federal government has forced farmers into a no-win financial nightmare.

In appearances before reporters, congressional audiences and Vice President George Bush, the lawmakers also demanded that Washington help dismantle the economic trap they said it has built for farmers.

“The heat’s on them now,” Republican Gov. William J. Janklow said of federal officials. “I believe something will get done, I really do.”

Only two of the 105 members of the Legislature stayed home from the whirlwind, one-day lobbying trip to the nation’s capital, and both of them had medical excuses.

Web of Interest Rates

The South Dakotans told congressional leaders and Reagan Administration officials that farmers and ranchers have been caught in a web of skyrocketing interest rates and expenses while the value of their land has plummeted and the prices they receive for their crops has not changed much for decades.

They said they thought their trip helped convince federal officials and Congress to increase short-term credit to provide money many farmers need to plant crops this spring, but that solutions to long-term problems will be harder to find.

“Just do what’s necessary to keep the patient alive and then we’ll go on to a long-term solution,” Janklow said.

Taking Views to Reagan

Bush stuck to Reagan’s plan to phase out price supports for farm products and to return farming to a free market, the lawmakers said after their brief meeting with him.

“He (Bush) said he was going to meet with the President this afternoon . . . and take our views to the President,” said House Republican leader Joe Barnett of Aberdeen. “We weren’t invited.”

House Democratic leader Lars Herseth of Houghton, a farmer, criticized Reagan’s plan, saying a move to drop price supports would just mean farmers would lose more money on their crops than they do now.

“It isn’t a ‘compassionate transition’ as the Administration calls it. It would be very uncompassionate. It would be very devastating to rural America,” Herseth said.