Peace Garden News

Senator John Hoeven, the Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, announced the inclusion of $33.5 billion in agriculture disaster assistance within a continuing resolution. This financial aid aims to support producers facing losses from natural disasters and difficult market conditions.

The package allocates $10 billion to assist farmers with economic losses incurred in 2024. An additional $21 billion is designated for aiding farmers and ranchers who have experienced losses due to natural disasters in both 2023 and 2024. Furthermore, $2.5 billion is earmarked for other agricultural disaster needs, including repairs for Agricultural Research Service (ARS) facilities affected by recent hurricanes. The legislation also extends the farm bill by one year to provide producers with planning certainty.

"Farm country has faced growing and serious challenges this year, which is why we worked hard to secure funding to help them recover and regroup for the coming year," stated Hoeven. He highlighted that "farmers have suffered over $31 billion in market losses, in addition to $35 billion in uncovered weather-related losses." According to Hoeven, the package offers "critical assistance for our nation’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities."

The economic assistance portion includes more than $600 million directed towards North Dakota producers for market losses.

For weather-related disaster assistance, the allocation comprises:

- $2 billion for livestock losses.

- $3 million dedicated to assisting domestic sugar producers by validating molasses imports at ports of entry to prevent illegal sugar importation.