Washington, D.C.--Oklahoma wheat producers can let out a sigh of relief for now. The U.S. House of Representatives quickly passed a bill today to provide a one-year exemption for agricultural commodities from the embargo President Clinton placed on Pakistan and India in May after their nuclear arms testing. U.S. Sixth District Congressman Frank Lucas is an original cosponsor of this bill, the 'Agriculture Export Relief Act.'

"I have been working with several of my colleagues on the Agriculture Committee to retract these unilateral sanctions since May," Lucas said. "If I had my druthers, I'd choose a more permanent solution, but our agriculture producers in Oklahoma can't afford to wait any longer.

"Right now our wheat producers are struggling with stagnant prices, and the last thing we need the Administration to do is cut off our wheat exports to Pakistan," Lucas continued. "More than half of my battles in office since passing the '96 Farm Bill have been to get the Administration to utilize export programs for our U.S. ag commodities."

"For the sake of expediency, so that farmers are allowed to take advantage of this week's 350,000 ton wheat tender by Pakistan, we [the House] chose to take this more immediate route," Lucas said. "This also gives Congress more time to find a feasible, permanent solution."