Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown last week amid a GOP fight over the president’s vaccine policies, passing another stop-gap funding measure that continues farm disaster and pandemic aid.
The new funding lasts only until February 18th, when lawmakers must again wrestle with funding for the rest of the current fiscal year. But until then, the second stop-gap bill in just over two months continues billions in emergency aid for producers in the original bill.
“The legislation includes 10 billion dollars for agricultural disaster assistance programs to cover events in 2020 and 2021.”
That’s House Ag Appropriations Chair Sanford Bishop, who said the initial funding continued in the new stopgap also includes 750 million dollars for livestock, dairy, and sugar losses this year. And there’s help for watersheds.
“The bill also includes 275 million dollars for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program to help communities address damages to infrastructure, caused by natural disasters, to infrastructure that impairs the watersheds.”
The continued funding also allows USDA to meet the demand for farm ownership loans and boost the number of fruits and vegetables in the WIC food package, and of course, keep key agencies like FSA and APHIS operating.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)