Congressman Gonzalez Announces USDA Disaster Designation for Drought Conditions in Live Oak County

Statement

Today, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) announced that Live Oak County was designated as a natural disaster area by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Duval and Karnes Counties in the 15th District of Texas also suffered consecutive weeks of intense drought and were designated as contiguous disaster counties qualifying them for federal assistance.

"In response to the severe drought conditions in South Texas, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has seen fit to issue disaster designations to help our struggling counties," said Congressman Gonzalez. "This designation will enable producers to access much needed federal resources to maintain operations. I encourage those in the 15th District of Texas affected by these conditions to apply for available resources."

A Secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for certain assistance from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) including FSA emergency loans.

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