House Approves Disaster Aid Package

By CnAgri2012-08-03 19:34:49 Print

The House approved a $384 million disaster relief package for livestock producers Thursday by a vote of 223-197, but cattlemen can't expect that help anytime soon as the Senate isn't likely to pass similar legislation before its five-week August recess. Similar disaster aid was contained in the Farm Bill approved this summer by the House Agriculture Committee and passed earlier by the Senate. But the committee's Farm Bill has yet to reach the House floor.

The vote came the day after the U.S. Department of Agriculture increased the number of counties designated as primary natural disaster areas due to worsening drought conditions.

While many crop farmers have insurance that provides some protection from the effects of the worst drought in a quarter-century, livestock producers are vulnerable to sharp increases in feed prices resulting from the dry weather. Some have had to liquidate stocks early because of the high maintenance costs.

The bill would restore four disaster aid programs, mostly for livestock producers and tree farmers, that expired last year. The estimated cost, $383 million, would be paid for by shaving some $630 million from two conservation programs. The disaster programs would be restored for the 2012 budget year.

While there was little dispute over the difficult straits of the livestock industry, there was opposition to the bill from environmental groups disturbed by the cuts to the conservation programs, anti-tax groups who saw the bill as another government bailout and agriculture groups who have been pushing the House to vote on a five-year farm bill that, in addition to making fundamental changes in agriculture safety nets, would restore the disaster relief programs. The current long-term farm bill expires at the end of September.