Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Disaster Assistance for Producers
Legislation provides assistance to crop and livestock producers and provides payments to offset the high cost of fuel and fertilizer.
Compiled by staff
Published: Apr 6, 2006
The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed an emergency supplemental bill Tuesday that offers comprehensive disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers and aid for the commercial seafood industry to help recover from last year's red tide and hurricane losses.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., attached the agriculture disaster package as an amendment to the emergency supplemental bill that will fund the Iraq war and hurricane relief. Dorgan and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., also have introduced the measure as a stand-alone bill. That bill was co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 23 other senators.
The legislation would provide assistance for crop and quality loss, as well as help ranchers in disaster counties with livestock feed costs. The legislation also provides payments to offset the high cost of fuel and fertilizer.
Dorgan says the bill will go next to the Senate floor for approval, and then to a conference committee with the U.S. House.
Last December, Dorgan offered a farm disaster amendment to a defense spending bill. It was approved by the Senate conferees but rejected by Republican conferees from the U.S. House of Representatives.
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