On Thursday, with President Trump giving his support, the Senate passed, 85-8, and sent to the House a $19.1-billion disaster bill that includes $3 billion for farmers hit by flooding and severe wet weather this spring along with aid to producers pounded last year by hurricanes in the South, wildfires in the West, and volcanoes in Hawaii. The bill would allow the wealthiest operators to receive a Trump tariff payment if at least 75 percent of their income is from farming, ranching, or forestry.
Trump said at the White House that he supported the compromise bill, which does not provide the border funding he had sought. The bill includes $605 million for Puerto Rico’s food stamp program and $300 million in block grants for reconstruction on the island. Passage of disaster legislation has been delayed since the start of this year by administration demands for border funding and its attempts to reduce aid to Puerto Rico.
Under the Senate-passed bill, agricultural aid can include compensation for the loss of milk and crops stored on the farm due to storms and flooding this year and for “crops prevented from planting.” Corn and soybean planting was 30 percentage points behind normal at the start of this week, and growers in some regions fear they will run out of time to plant a crop at all.
The USDA usually denies subsidy payments to operators with an adjusted gross income or more than $900,000 a year. This bill would waive the income limit for the Market Facilitation Program, the formal name for Trump tariff payments, created last year with a $125,000 payment limit. The administration announced a new round of MFP payments for this year on Thursday.
To read a summary of the disaster bill, click here.
The text of the disaster bill is available here.