US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced that the department will be Expediting Disaster relief funds. Secretary Rollins touted the USDA’s recent rollout of the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) which a USDA press release calls the “quickest, most effective rollout of emergency payments in the history of the program.” So far, over 450,000 farmers across 49 states have received $7.3 Billion in payments through ECAP. Secretary Rollins also announced plans to expedite an additional $21 Billion in disaster assistance including the the General Block Grant Authority. USDA has setup a portal to track each of these programs and in the southeast, Alabama, Georgia and Florida are all in line for the General Block Grant Authority to pay losses due to adverse weather events including Hurricane Helene. USDA notes in the portal that these states have submitted their requests to USDA and that USDA is engaging with these states, among others, to negotiate the final agreements and will not have to have Office of Management and Budget approval. Those states that have negotiated a final agreement by May 28th, are scheduled to be completed by June 13th, and those agreements finalized by June 13th are scheduled to be completed by June 30th. Secretary Rollins said, “I have had the honor of visiting many farms and speak with families over the last several months and have heard firsthand that farmers are struggling. We are working every day to improve the farm economy. President Trump knows how important agriculture is to the success of our country. We are reversing four years of neglect by announcing a policy portfolio to help small family farms and expediting assistance to support American agriculture. We delivered ECAP payments in record time and will do it again with this disaster assistance announced today.”