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Summary:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers several permanently authorized programs to help farmers recover financially from a natural disaster, including federal crop insurance, the noninsured assistance program, and emergency disaster loans. Since 1988, Congress regularly has made supplemental financial assistance available to farmers and ranchers, primarily in the form of crop disaster payments and emergency livestock assistance. The 109th Congress provided about $1.6 billion in agricultural assistance in two emergency supplemental acts (P.L. 109-148, P.L. 109-234) exclusively for agricultural losses caused by the 2005 Gulf state hurricanes. To date, Congress has not authorized any emergency agricultural assistance for 2005 production losses outside of the Gulf region, or for any 2006 agricultural losses nationwide. In the final days of the 109th Congress, Senate supporters of farm disaster aid offered a $4.8 billion package that would have covered both 2005 and 2006 production losses. However, because of its cost and opponents' demand for a budgetary offset for the new spending, the amendment was not adopted. In the 110th Congress, supporters have introduced a similar package of assistance (S. 284). A series of severe winter storms in late 2006 and early 2007 could broaden the scope of proposed assistance to include 2007production losses. This report will be updated as conditions warrant.
