Letter to the Honorable Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture - Regarding USDA Emergency Loans

Letter

The Honorable Tom Vilsack
Secretary of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave. SW, Room 200
Washington, D.C. 20250

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

We respectfully request that you take prompt action on Governor Susana Martinez's request for a Secretarial Disaster Declaration as a result of a catastrophic winter storm that swept through New Mexico in December 2015. The storm resulted in wide-spread damage to the agricultural sector in the following counties: Colfax, Union, Harding, Mora, San Miguel, Quay, Guadalupe, Torrance, De Baca, Roosevelt, Curry, Lincoln, Chaves, Lea, Eddy, Otero, Socorro, and Santa Fe.

A Secretarial disaster designation will immediately trigger the availability of low-interest Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loans to eligible producers in all primary and contiguous counties. The agricultural sector is vital to New Mexico, and is the backbone of the rural economy. The livestock mortalities in these counties will have a detrimental effect on the dairy, beef, and sheep within New Mexico. Future damages and losses to farms, ranches and dairies are likely to be significant.

Recovering from this storm will require a full and coordinated approach. We greatly appreciate the work already done by New Mexico-based USDA employees to assess damages and provide information about USDA programs. Given the wide-spread geographic area of this disaster, and more expected storms in coming weeks, we request speedy action on this request in order to get assistance to impacted communities as quickly as possible.

We appreciate your past responsiveness to the State of New Mexico when our communities have sought federal disaster assistance, and thank you for your attention to and consideration of this important request.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator Tom Udall
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich
U.S. Representative Steve Pearce
U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján
U.S. Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham