Times Journal - Delgado Op-Ed: Our Farmers Face Challenges

Op-Ed

By Antonio Delgado

New York's 19th Congressional District is the eighth most rural district in the House of Representatives. We are home to nearly 5,000 farms and 96% are small family farms. Agriculture is essential to our upstate economy and our way of life. Yet, farmers will tell you that the COVID-19 pandemic is greatly exacerbating an already difficult economy for our local producers. The pandemic presents severe challenges to our agriculture economy including H-2A workforce delays and disruptions to regional food systems following the closure of local restaurants, schools, and all other non-essential establishments.

It is these farmers I had in mind when I led a letter to Congressional leadership with 37 members that called for the inclusion of special disaster assistance measures for small and midsize farmers in the third coronavirus emergency package. I am proud that we succeeded in this effort and secured $9.5 billion in federal assistance in the CARES Act for specialty crops, dairy and livestock, and producers impacted by local food system disruptions. In total, the CARES Act provides USDA with $23.5 billion to assist our farmers.

Nonetheless, it has been more than ten days since the CARES Act was signed into law and Congress and farmers nationwide are still waiting on USDA to issue guidelines on how this assistance can be accessed. Furthermore, there has been a great deal of confusion around farmers' eligibility for the hundreds of billions of federal dollars Congress provided to help small businesses. Small farmers are small businesses, and in passing the CARES Act, Congress expanded eligibility for the Small Business Administration's (SBA) emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program to farmers and other industries not normally eligible for SBA assistance. Despite this, the SBA has yet to comply with Congressional intent and extend EIDL to farmers. It is imperative that farmers be able to access SBA disaster assistance as these programs can help fill the void that many farm businesses are currently feeling due to COVID-19. To that end, I teamed up with Reps. Anthony Brindisi and Josh Harder to lead a letter with 86 members on both sides of the aisle, urging the SBA to allow our small farmers to apply for these needed loans.

The CARES Act revamped SBA's EIDL program with a new grant component where borrowers are eligible for immediate, emergency grants of up to $10,000 to be made available within days of a successful loan application. This grant does not need to be paid back, regardless of whether the small business owner is approved for the loan, which itself can provide loans for up to $2 million.

As small businesses facing unprecedented economic hardship and future uncertainty, it is imperative that our small farms be able to access these funds. I will continue pushing the SBA to disburse federal assistance as Congress intended until we make this right.

This is a difficult time for our entire community, and I am working to provide resources for our small farmers and small businesses as we navigate this pandemic together. Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office for assistance and clarification on these changing rules.

Thank you to our family farmers for all you do to keep our community fed and supported. We will get through this together.

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