U.S. Congressman Frank Lucas is continuing his efforts to provide assistance to help agriculture producers deal with losses caused by the unprecedented natural disasters over the past two years, including a recent blizzard in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Lucas will introduce the new version of his Agriculture Disaster Assistance bill this week to provide relief from the natural disasters that have plagued the farm sector over the last two years. Lucas rewrote the bill’s language for the new 110th Session of Congress to also include losses in late December and early January from a snowstorm that dumped as much as four feet of snow on parts of the Oklahoma Panhandle, Colorado, and western Kansas.
"They say in Oklahoma if you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes, and the last few years have been a testament to that expression," Lucas said. "Over the last two years Oklahoma farms have struggled through the most crippling drought in decades, fast-moving wildfires, and most recently a blinding blizzard in the Panhandle."
Lucas’ bill from the previous Congress was not signed into law, so Lucas is re-introducing the legislation in the new session this year, in hopes that he can garner enough support from other Members to provide relief for struggling producers.
"Our farmers have seen just about every extreme weather condition you can imagine, from a drought that withered crops, raging wildfires that destroyed property, and a blizzard that resulted in the loss of cattle. What’s next, frogs and locusts?"
Like the previous bill, Lucas’ Natural Disaster Assistance Bill of 2007 will provide payments to those producers dealing with extensive recent natural disasters such as the drought in the Midwest and flooding in California. The new bill will provide assistance for crop, livestock, and grazing losses in 2005, 2006, or 2007. Lucas hopes to first garner the support necessary to get the legislation passed out of the House Agriculture Committee.
"This legislation will not match the losses farmers have suffered, but if passed it should help them to survive financially for another year so that they can continue to produce the food and fiber our country needs," Lucas said.
Lucas believes the programs could provide as much as $3 billion in federal assistance for those producers hardest hit by natural disasters.
The bill would make producers eligible for payments to cover half their losses that are beyond a loss of 35 percent of normal yields. The bill provides payments for livestock losses in qualifying disaster counties. It also pays 30 percent of the market value of animal losses due to natural disasters.
Lucas is a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee.
