Ag Disaster Assistance:What Happened and What's Ahead

Randy Jemison, USA Rice Federation’s Louisiana representative, sent a brief update to his state’s members Monday, which was forwarded to us by a couple of people. According to Jemison, USA Rice and several other commodity groups met with the staff of U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R. Miss.) last week about what could be done when Congress returns and again tries to provide additional ag disaster assistance.

In December, he reported, hurricane assistance was included in the last appropriations bill of tghe year, which was for defense funding. The ag package had started at about $4 billion but was cut by the House leadership to well below $1 billion. In the end, only about $400 million was included for a forestry/timber assistance program for the direct hurricane impacted states, Jemison reported.

“Looking ahead, there will likely be another supplemental spending bill in (the) late February to April timeframe for the Iraq war and to replenish some of the FEMA accounts,” he reported. “This would be the next opportunity to attempt to add ag disaster assistance. Sen. Cochran is still supportive of trying to accomplish this, but it is going to take more support from a bipartisan group of Senators (and support from some key House members. Any type of ag disaster package has to have some components that are tied to hurricane damage or losses.”

The “preferred option” would be to let producers choose either a percentage of their direct payment or a traditional crop loss disaster payment calculated off a 35% or greater yield loss, he said.

“It is most likely that any package would have to be limited at least to all disaster declared counties (USDA or Presidential declaration), if not limited even further,” he added. “If both USDA and Presidential declared counties are included, virtually all of the rice producing counties would be covered. We will be working with the other commodity/ag groups to send a letter to the Hill and USDA on this issue and to try to help assemble a larger, bipartisan group of supporters for ag disaster aid. However, it is still very uncertain if a meaningful ag disaster package can be approved given the current budget situation.”