“The people of the Fourth Congressional District in Arkansas did not send me to Washington to engage in partisan politics,” Ross said. “I was sent up here to help people in their time of need and it is imperative that the Republican Majority do right by our farmers and ranchers who need assistance after suffering for the past two years from damaged crops, lost livestock and increased costs of doing business compounded by high energy prices.”

Ross was joined on a telephone conference call today from Washington by fellow agriculture state legislators: ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson (MN), Rep. Marion Berry (AR), Rep. John Barrow (GA) and Rep. Bob Etheridge (NC). The group released a discharge petition that would force immediate action on H.R. 5099, agriculture disaster assistance. The petition garnered 42 signatures in less than a day after it was filed and requires 218 signatures in order for action to be taken.

“Allowing our farm families the ability to provide our nation a safe and reliable source of food and fiber is every bit as important to our national security as oil is,” Ross said. “We’ve become way too dependent on foreign oil and America must not become dependent on other countries for our food supply.”

Ross went on to discuss how natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and other factors like soybean rust have had a profound negative economic impact on rural America.  Ross said that such factors not only impact farmers, but that they also impact local bankers, equipment dealers, grocery stores, and other businesses.

This year alone, more than 71 percent of U.S. counties have been declared primary or contiguous disaster area by the United States Department of Agriculture. Last year, the number of counties named disaster areas was 78 percent.

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