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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 3001. Congressional statement of findings and purpose
The economic and financial structure of this country in
combination with the Nation's natural resources and the
productivity of the American people has produced one of the highest
average standards of living in the world. However, the Nation has
been experiencing inflation and unemployment together with an
increasing gap between producers' prices and consumers' purchasing
power. This has resulted in a growing number of our citizens,
especially the elderly, the poor, and the inner city resident,
being unable to share in the fruits of our Nation's highly
efficient economic system. The Congress finds that user-owned
cooperatives are a proven method for broadening ownership and
control of the economic organizations, increasing the number of
market participants, narrowing price spreads, raising the quality
of goods and services available to their membership, and building
bridges between producers and consumers, and their members and
patrons. The Congress also finds that consumer and other types of
self-help cooperatives have been hampered in their formation and
growth by lack of access to adequate cooperative credit facilities
and lack of technical assistance. Therefore, the Congress finds a
need for the establishment of a National Consumer Cooperative Bank
which will make available necessary financial and technical
assistance to cooperative self-help endeavors as a means of
strengthening the Nation's economy.
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