Requesting Help for Farmers Inundated with Natural Disasters

This week I called on U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to grant a request by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad for 27 counties to be designated as disaster areas.  The counties sustained substantial damage from several weather events over the summer, including a major hail and wind storm in July.

I saw the damage firsthand on my travels across Iowa during the month of August.  Farmers in various parts of the state have faced just about every kind of challenge that summer weather can bring.  People along the Missouri River haven’t been able to assess the damage to their fields because they are still under water.  And, farmers stretching from Fremont County to Linn County have dealt with hail, wind, and drought damage.

If the disaster designation request is granted, farmers in the counties of Adams, Clarke, Davis, Decatur, Fremont, Henry, Jefferson, Jones, Keokuk, Lee, Linn, Louisa, Lucas, Marshall, Mills, Monona, Monroe, Montgomery, Page, Polk, Tama, Taylor, Van Buren, Wapello, Washington, Wayne and Woodbury, and in the counties adjacent to each of those counties, would be eligible for Farm Service Agency emergency loans and the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments Program.  

The Farm Service Agency, a division within the Department of Agriculture, provides help to farmers for natural disaster losses resulting from drought, flood, fire, freeze, tornadoes, pest infestation, and other calamities.  Assistance is provided through programs such as the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments program, a crop disaster assistance program to help eligible producers on farms that have incurred crop losses.

Here is a copy of my letter to Secretary Vilsack.  Governor Branstad’s letter can be found by clicking here.