Senators Fight For Ag Disaster Aid
Bill Provides $175 million to North Dakota Farmers and Ranchers
Standing with state farm leaders and area growers, Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan today detailed emergency legislation they are pushing to bring roughly $175 Million in badly-needed relief to farmers and ranchers in North Dakota - and across the nation - who have been struck hard by natural disaster.
"Weather-related disasters have wreaked havoc on farms and ranches across the nation, including many right here in North Dakota. The federal government has an obligation to provide relief," said Senator Conrad, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. "My legislation will not make our farmers and ranchers whole, but it will give them a fighting chance to stay in business."
"I support Congress' effort to help producers affected by hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, but farmers and ranchers in North Dakota and across the country have faced devastating weather conditions that are no less a disaster," Senator Dorgan said. "I was able to pass this bill through the Appropriations Committee, but there is more work to be done for the urgent help farmers and ranchers need."
North Dakota's farmers and ranchers were hit hard by natural disasters in 2005. Last year, every county in North Dakota received a disaster designation. Some parts of the state saw rainfall of more than 250 percent of normal. As a result, more than one million acres of North Dakota farmland was prevented from being planted. In addition, many farmers experienced reduced crop quality that resulted in large price discounts. And while weather disasters were cutting into farm income, energy-related farm expenses rose by more than $5 billion last year.
Last month, Senator Conrad introduced the Emergency Agriculture Disaster Assistance Act of 2006. The legislation - which includes Senator Dorgan among its 27 bipartisan cosponsors - provides emergency funding to farmers and ranchers who have suffered weather-related crop production shortfalls, quality losses and damage to livestock feed supplies. It will also provide payments for the loss of livestock and help farmers overcome losses as a result of energy prices that spiked following last year's hurricanes.
Senator Dorgan, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, successfully pressed the Committee on April 4, to add the agriculture disaster bill as an amendment to the emergency supplemental bill that funds the Iraq war and hurricane relief. Senator Dorgan said he will fight to preserve the assistance for family farmers and ranchers as a member of the House-Senate conference committee that negotiates the final version of the bill.
Senators Conrad and Dorgan said the legislation, which incorporates many of the provisions in disaster legislation they introduced last fall, would provide about $175 million to North Dakota farmers and ranchers. The bill also includes $6 million for flooded lands in the Devils Lake region.
The Senators' ag disaster legislation was adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee on a unanimous vote and now goes to the full Senate for approval. Earlier this month, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Colin Peterson, Congressman Earl Pomeroy and 24 other House members introduced a companion bill.
http://conrad.senate.gov/~conrad/releases/06/04/2006418557.html