Press Releases

Congressman Larry Bucshon (IN-08) released the following statement regarding the Unites States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announcement on disaster assistance improvements and support for farmers affected by extreme weather.

Congressman Bucshon (IN-08) states:

“These reforms are important to the future of the agriculture industry as out-dated regulations governed the disaster relief process.  As Southwest Indiana and the Wabash Valley have experienced terrible drought this year, I am confident these changes and the disaster designation will help local farmers in Indiana.”

Background:

The following counties have been designated as primary counties:  Daviess, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Martin, Pike, Posey, Sullivan, Vanderburgh, and Warrick. 

The following counties have been designated as contiguous counties:  Clay, Owen, and Vigo. 

According to the USDA the disaster assistance improvements are, “…three significant improvements to decades-old USDA programs and processes related to Secretarial disaster designations: a final rule that simplifies the process for Secretarial disaster designations and will result in a 40 percent reduction in processing time for most counties affected by disasters; a reduced interest rate for emergency loans that effectively lowers the current rate from 3.75 percent to 2.25 percent; and reduces the payment reduction on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands qualified for emergency haying and grazing in 2012 from 25 to 10 percent.”

Congressman Bucshon joined members of the Hoosier Delegation (Congressmen Donnelly, Pence, and Rokita) in a letter on June 29, 2012 to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack encouraging the secretary, “…to promptly consider a request to authorize emergency haying and grazing of all conservation reserve program land also including haying of filter and border strips in all counties that meet the appropriate drought conditions and to give prompt consideration to future requests.”

For more general information on the types of assistance available, please visit the USDA’s Farm Service Agency Disaster Preparedness information at:

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=diap&topic=landing

Those who would like to apply for assistance must contact their county FSA office as there is no online application process.  All contact information for Indiana may be obtained here:

http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=in&agency=fsa

###