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Texas Agriculture Archive

March 7, 2003

Assistance package
gets mixed reviews

By Mike Barnett
Editor

On one hand, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman gives high praise to the disaster assistance package passed by House and Senate budget conferees and recently signed by President Bush.

On the other hand, Stallman worries that it isn't enough and that future farm bill spending might be affected.

"This disaster package appears better targeted than earlier proposals, meaning it will get help to those that need it most," Stallman said. "We continue to believe, however, that the $3.1 billion allocated for disaster aid will fall short of meeting the needs of farm country.

"We also have grave concerns that the disaster package is being funded from money set aside for future farm bill spending. It is an unfortunate precedent that could undermine important programs, such as conservation. The farm bill was not designed to respond to weather disasters."

Good news in the form of $10 million was included in the package for farmers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, to help compensate for losses of irrigation water caused by Mexico's failure to comply with the 1944 water treaty. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison helped secure the additional funding.

The entire $3.1 billion cost is taken from the Farm Bill's Conservation Security Program (CSP). The Congressional Budget Office scored the CSP program a little more than $7.7 billion over 10 years. This bill will limit that program to $3.7 billion.

Package details

While the devil is in the details of the disaster assistance package, the following is a summary provided by AFBF:

•Targeted disaster assistance for crop producers—$2.115 billion. This will assist producers who have sustained greater than a 35 percent loss in either 2001 or 2002 (see House Ag Committee charts and explanations, Pages 20-21). It provides help according to the amount of loss, up to $90 per acre for the average corn or cotton farm, $60 per acre for the average soybean farm, and $40 per acre for the average wheat farm.

The program is a modified crop disaster formula of 65/50 for insured and 65/45 for non-insured. It is capped at 95 percent of total expected crop value.

The program applies to program and non-program crops for quality and quantity losses. Sugar is not covered because it has a separate program.

•Assistance for livestock producers—$365 million. The package provides $100 million to remove the date restrictions from the Administration's Livestock Compensation Program (LCP) to provide the same eligibility to all counties in the country; funds a separate Livestock Assistance Program at $250 million to address the needs of producers who were not adequately covered by the LCP program; and provides $15 million to equalize treatment of landowners and operators under the Conservation Reserve Program grazing allowances. A new eligibility test for the Livestock Assistance Program is implemented so that only those with less than $2.5 million in adjusted gross income will qualify.

•Emergency surplus removal for specialty crops—$250 million. Partially replenishes Section 32 funds to offset funds used for the Livestock Compensation Program last summer.

•Cottonseed assistance—$50 million. For losses to the industry resulting from hurricanes last fall.

•Sugar producer assistance—$120 million. $60 million to compensate farmers and processing coops for hurricane losses and $60 million to compensate beet farmers for losses due to flooding and drought.

• Bovine Tuberculoses Eradication—$15 million. No details were available at press time.

• Funding for USDA to administer the Farm Bill and this disaster package—$70 million.

Implementation

Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has announced that USDA is establishing a disaster assistance working group to ensure timely and efficient implementation of program benefits.

"We want to make sure that the disaster aid implementation is a farmer-friendly process and our team at USDA is going to work to ensure that the program benefits reach producers as quickly as possible," Veneman said. "This working group will examine ways to expedite the process and cut red tape if possible to get program benefits in the hands of farmers and ranchers."

While it is too early for USDA to determine when sign-up for the various disaster programs will be available, this working group will begin examining program requirements and appropriate timetables.

The disaster assistance programs contained in the measure will require producers to sign-up to receive program benefits through local Farm Service Agency offices. This will take USDA additional time to establish regulatory guidelines and write computer software programs so county offices are able to perform sign-up when those time frames are announced.

As part of the disaster aid implementation process, USDA launched a website for producers to utilize that contains information about the disaster assistance program, questions and answers, as well as other pertinent data. The website also contains comments and suggestions section to encourage producers to provide input to USDA on how best to move the implementation process forward.

For more information, visit USDA"s website at http://www.usda.gov.