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Disaster payments limited by appropriations
American Farm Bureau economist John Newton says disaster and prevent plant
compensation is limited by congressional appropriations. Speaking on a Missouri
Farm Bureau conference call, Newton said disaster legislation allows for
prevent plant payments up to 90 percent of a crop’s value. He says, however,
that Trump Administration officials have indicated the USDA must operate within
appropriation limits.
“That $3 billion has remained the same, but at this point now they’ve added prevent
plant as an eligible disaster so the money is going to be spread pretty thin
there, and I think that is what USDA is trying to highlight,” said Newton
during the call.
Another question is whether compensation eligibility is limited to those who
farm within a declared disaster area. The message from administration officials
is that anyone outside those areas will be considered on a case-by-case basis,
said Newton.
“Given that the moneys are pretty thin to begin with,” he said, “I would imagine
that’s one of the mechanisms they’ll use to make sure anybody getting some of
these additional prevent plant payments are in some of those disaster areas.”
Newton was part of recent Missouri Farm Bureau Telephone Town Hall involving
farmers and policy experts.
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