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Wheat growers applaud disaster assistance vote
After nearly two years of work, it appears wheat growers across the country who have experienced drought, floods, fires or freezes in recent crop growing seasons will get the federal assistance they need. A domestic spending bill including agriculture disaster assistance provisions passed the House May 24 by a vote of 348-73. A combined war funding/domestic spending bill was approved by the Senate later May 24 evening by a vote of 80-14. President George W. Bush has indicated he will sign the measure. "Many of our producers need this assistance desperately, so this has been a top priority for the NAWG leadership and staff for a long time," said John Thaemert, NAWG president and a wheat grower in Sylvan Grove, Kan. "We thank and applaud all of the members of Congress who made America's farmers a priority and worked to get ag disaster assistance in the final supplemental package." The legislation passed by Congress would provide crop production loss assistance for losses of more than 35 percent in either 2005, 2006 or 2007, with the losses for 2007 crops covered only if the crop subject to the loss was planted prior to Feb. 28. Only producers with crop insurance coverage or who signed up for the Non-insured Assistance Program would be eligible for assistance. Payments are to be made within 60 days of a producer's application. Virtually every state in the nation has been impacted by significant weather-related and disaster losses in 2005, 2006 or 2007. In 2005 alone, about 80 percent of U.S. counties were declared by the Administration to be disaster or contiguous disaster counties. Producers have also faced rapidly escalating input costs. "We were very pleased to see Congress pass this help for rural America, and we hope to see the president sign the supplemental bill quickly," said Daren Coppock, NAWG CEO. Date: 5/29/07
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