With the government temporarily back up and running, lawmakers are continuing their work on a disaster relief package. A particular focus of the efforts are the 2018 agricultural losses that occurred from hurricanes and wildfires.
“Both the House and Senate have adopted different versions of a disaster bill that includes a very significant agriculture component,” said Vice President of Washington Operations for the National Cotton Council, Reece Langley. “The most recent versions include about $3 billion for WHIP and…once there’s an agreement on the broader government funding for the rest of this fiscal year, we feel very optimistic that agricultural disaster relief package will be attached to that funding bill and will move forward.”
While there are some legislative challenges that need to be addressed, there is expectation that a resolution will be achieved some time in the near future. “Hopefully by some time spring or summer, growers that had losses from 2018 disasters can go in and sign up for that assistance,” Langley noted.