WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Congressional Oversight Panel announced today that it will hold a field hearing on commercial farm credit markets on Tuesday, July 7 at 10:00 am in the Weld County Centennial Center in Greeley, Colorado.

The Panel is currently scheduled to hear from the following witnesses:

• Mike Flesher, Executive Vice President, Farm Credit Services of the Mountain Plains
• Bryan Cook, Farm Loan Manager, Weld County Farm Service Agency
• Lonnie Ochsner, Senior Vice President, New West Bank
• Marc Arnusch, Owner, Marc Arnusch Farms
• Les Hardesty, Owner, Painted Prairie Farm, and Chairman, Dairy Farmers of America Mountain Area Council

In the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, Congress required the Congressional Oversight Panel to issue a report that "analyzes the state of the commercial farm credit markets and the use of loan restructuring as an alternative to foreclosure by recipients of financial assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program." The report is scheduled for release on July 21, 2009, and the field hearing in Greeley will inform the Panel's recommendations on farm credit issues that will be put forth in the report.

At the hearing, the Panel members intend to hear testimony from local farmers and agriculture lenders, including the USDA's Farm Service Agency, Farm Credit Services and commercial banks, in order to gain a better understanding of farm credit markets.

WHO:
Members of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel

WHAT:
Congressional Oversight Panel Hearing: Field Hearing on Farm Credit

WHEN:
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
10:00 am

WHERE:
Weld County Centennial Center
County Commissioners Meeting Room
915 10th Avenue
Greeley, Colorado 80631

The Congressional Oversight Panel was created to oversee the expenditure of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds authorized by Congress in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). The Oversight Panel members are Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Richard H. Neiman, Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York, Damon Silvers, Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO, former US Senator John E. Sununu (R-NH), and Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.