Emergency Agricultural Legislation Remarks on House of Representatives Action on H.R. 6782.

THE PRESIDENT. As President, I'm very happy to hear that the House of Representatives has defeated by a strong majority the agriculture bill conference report. This is good for the farmers of the United States and also very good for the consumers.

This bill would have damaged very severely our Nation's export markets. It would have been a heavy blow against the livestock producers of this country. It would have been almost impossible to administer and would have added $6 billion to the Federal budget and would have put us in the double-digit inflation category in food prices.

So, the courageous action that the House has taken this afternoon is an encouraging sign that the Congress has joined in with me and will cooperate in holding down the inflation that has been of such great concern to all of us.

This is good for our farm policy. It's good in holding down inflation. It's a very encouraging sign of cooperation between the Congress and the White House in dealing with the Nation's very important problems.

Thank you very much.

REPORTER. Anything on energy?

THE PRESIDENT. We're making progress, I think.