Durbin Promises to Fight for Illinois Agriculture Disaster Relief
DURBIN PROMISES TO FIGHT FOR ILLINOIS AGRICULTURE DISASTER RELIEF
Thursday, August 31, 2006
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today promised to continue fighting for agriculture disaster relief funding for Illinois farmers. This year's agriculture disaster package, announced yesterday by USDA, fails to provide relief to states like Illinois which were hit hard by agricultural disasters, including hurricanes, drought and floods.
"The agriculture disaster package announced by the Administration yesterday seriously shortchanges Illinois farmers," said Durbin. "I have been working with my colleagues in the Senate on both sides of the aisle over the past year to provide Illinois farmers with critical relief needed to deal with last year's drought. Unfortunately, the President, House Republicans, and now USDA continue to challenge our efforts to provide Illinois farmers with disaster relief."
Yesterday's agriculture disaster package set aside $700 million, of the $780 million total, for expedited payments of counter cyclical payments already owed for the 2005 crop year. Corn and soybean farmers in Illinois rarely receive these counter cyclical dollars. The remaining $80 million in funding is set aside for livestock producers and conservation payments for the 2006 crop year- funding for which Illinois farmers are ineligible.
Durbin noted that Illinois farmers suffered $433 million in losses as a direct result of the drought. At least 10 counties in Northeast and Western Illinois sustained greater than 20 percent losses in corn yields. In addition to coping with crop losses, farmers have had to deal with significantly higher operating costs, as a result of increased fuel prices.
For Illinois farmers, increased fuel prices mean higher costs for operating farm machinery, as well as rising fertilizer and pesticide prices. Durbin added that the average Illinois farmer, with a 1,000 acre farm, is paying $24,000 more than he or she did in 2001 to operate a farm. This 30 percent increase in costs is a direct result of higher gas prices which have led to higher fuel, fertilizer and pesticide costs for farmers across the state.
In June, House Republicans rejected the Senate funding request for $3.9 billion in agriculture disaster relief funding cut from the emergency spending bill and insisted on selling farmers short by agreeing to just $409 million. Durbin served on the House-Senate conference committee that negotiated the final version of the emergency appropriations bill, but the President pressured members of the committee to drop the agriculture disaster package.
In May, Durbin introduced, along with 24 other Senators from both parties, S. 2438, the Emergency Disaster Assistance Act of 2006. Durbin also sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Ranking Member Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), asking for the inclusion of disaster assistance funds in this year's emergency appropriations bill for Illinois farmers who incurred significant losses due to natural disasters.
Last fall, Durbin introduced a bill to extend the 2003-2004 disaster relief package through the 2005 crop year. Durbin said he was disappointed that "House conferees dropped the drought assistance for Midwest and other farmers in the supplemental package in December," despite the clear will of the Senate to provide this much needed emergency funding.
http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=262268&&