04/10/06 Disaster assistance takes a step

Farm and Ranch April 10, 2006 The National Association of Wheat Growers is commending action taken by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee last week. So is the American Farm Bureau. The committee unanimously approved legislation that includes comprehensive disaster and economic assistance for farmers and ranchers. Brooks: "We've very excited about it. It still has a long way to go. We still have a lot of work to do. But we are very happy. We think this is the first good step." That is Dana Brooks, American Farm Bureau Farm Policy Specialist who says the assistance is part of a supplemental spending bill for the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina. Brooks: "It is going to be about a four billion dollar amendment and it is going to provide disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers throughout the United States." NAWG president Dale Schuler says the adoption of the amendment is the first step toward providing desperately needed relief to wheat producers. He says farmers can't pass on higher energy costs and farmers can't control natural disasters that destroy their crops. Producers would get help for their increased energy inputs through a payment of 30 percent of their direct payment if they were in the farm program in 2005. The Farm Bureau's Brooks expects the full Senate will pass the measure. Then the next step is to build support in the House of Representatives. The amendment in the Senate was similar to legislation introduced by North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan and last week a companion bill to that was introduced in the House by Collin Peterson, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. His bill has bipartisan sponsorship. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information