Hoeven Secures Appeals Process to Help Ensure Farmers Receive Needed Disaster Aid, Resolve Agi Issues

Press Release

Senator John Hoeven today announced that the Farm Service Agency (FSA), at the senator's urging, has established an appeals process for producers impacted by issues with FSA's adjusted gross income (AGI) calculations under the Emergency Relief Program (ERP). After hearing concerns from North Dakota farmers, Hoeven has been working with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials, including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie and FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux to resolve the issue, which had improperly subjected some producers to lower payment limits, preventing them from fully recovering their eligible losses.

In addition, USDA will begin sending applications to producers that were not included in ERP phase one. This includes those who had their 2020 prevent plant claims inadvertently excluded from their original pre-filled ERP applications, which Hoeven successfully worked to correct.

"This appeals process is an important correction to the row crop disaster aid that we secured for our producers, helping to resolve issues with FSA's AGI calculations and ensuring farmers can more effectively recover from last year's historic drought," said Hoeven "Today's announcement builds on the prevent plant fix we secured last month, for which USDA will start sending out corrected applications next week, along with applications for other producers not included in the first phase of ERP."

Producers should contact their FSA county office to learn more about the appeals process, including eligibility and documentation requirements.

Improving ERP's Implementation

Hoeven repeatedly raised both the AGI and prevent plant issues with USDA officials, having:

Held a meeting with Bonnie, Ducheneaux and North Dakota producers to outline the issue and stress the importance of ensuring ERP works for farmers and ranchers and effectively helps them offset their losses.
Spoken with Ducheneaux to drive home the importance of correcting the issues prior to the beginning of ERP phase two.
Joined his colleagues in pressing Vilsack to resolve issues with the implementation of ERP.

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