Disaster assistance proposed for Farm Bill

The proposal will be considered during the committee's Thursday markup of agriculture tax provisions.

"Every year in agriculture there's always a disaster," Nelson said. "But the way we have had to deal with this in the past is getting special legislation through in a supplemental spending bill because there has been no money put aside for disasters."

The $5 billion funding proposal for a Farm Bill disaster provision would not be big enough to cover a mega-disaster, but would be adequate to cover regional disasters, such as drought, Nelson said.

He said a disaster provision is an important component to the Farm Bill's safety net. Not only would it supplement what insurance doesn't cover, but funding would be available nearly immediately instead of farmers and ranchers having to wait months before Congress appropriates disaster funding through a supplement spending bill.

"The Bush administration has fought us time and again in drought assistance," Nelson said. "This provision will make it far easier to handle true drought conditions and drought relief."

Nelson said while former Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns was U.S. secretary of agriculture, he opposed disaster assistance and making disaster assistance a permanent part of the Farm Bill.

National Farmers Union President Tom Buis said America's family farmers and ranchers can do many things but they cannot control Mother Nature.

"This program would provide for assurance in the event of extreme weather conditions," Buis said.

He said the current structure of providing disaster assistance on an ad hoc basis, subject to the political climate in Washington, often leaves producers waiting for years for relief.

Since 1998, Congress has approved 23 ad hoc disaster assistance bills and with each bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has to develop and implement a different program.

He said the House-passed Farm Bill authorized a permanent disaster program, but due to the Farm Bill's decreased budget baseline, the resources were not available for its funding.

"A permanent disaster program is a common-sense solution to providing a helping hand to our family farmers and ranchers in their time of need," Buis said.

But, according to the Environmental Working Group, a disaster trust fund may not be a good idea.

According to EWG, over the past 21 years (1985-2005), taxpayers have provided $26 billion in emergency agricultural disaster aid to more than two million farm and ranch operations.

"USDA sent out disaster aid checks every year for the past two decades, with payouts exceeding one billion dollars in 11 of the 21 years," according to the EWG.

According to a EWG review, "... most of this $5 billion would go to just a few states where agricultural disaster "emergencies" are in fact routine, virtually annual occurrences, primarily because of low rainfall."

EWG said these same states are among the biggest recipients of crop subsidies, conservation aid, and federally subsidized crop insurance claims.

Resource: Grand Island Independent, www.iatp.org
Released on: 4 October 2007