More Details on Disaster Aid Enrollment

OMAHA (DTN) -- Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Wednesday released a timeline for launching disaster assistance to producers.

Under the details released, livestock producers will be able to sign up at the end of May for losses tied to drought and wildfire. Crop producers who suffered income losses in 2023 or 2024 due to natural disasters are expected to be able to enroll for payments in July if they had crop insurance. However, enrollment will begin in September for farmers who lacked crop insurance or suffered shallow losses.

Not all farmers will enroll directly through USDA for their aid payments due to block grant authority given to as many as 16 states to distribute aid to producers.

In a news release, the department also sought to contrast the speed of disaster aid that will come from the Trump administration compared to aid programs under the Biden administration.

USDA pointed to the speed the $10 billion Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) was launched, which was spelled out in the statute to have aid released within 90 days.

"President Trump knows how important agriculture is to the success of our country," Rollins stated in the news release. "We are reversing four years of neglect by announcing a policy portfolio to help small family farms and expediting assistance to support American agriculture. We delivered ECAP payments in record time and will do it again with this disaster assistance announced today."

Rollins on Wednesday emphasized that distributing this aid has been more complicated than distributing the ECAP payments because the disaster aid requires reaching agreements with the state governments that will distribute the aid.

The disaster payments for losses in 2023 and 2024 come from $21 billion approved by Congress in December. The package included $2 billion specifically carved out for livestock producers. The legislation set up a plan for USDA to distribute aid through block grants with states as well.

For livestock producers, USDA released a projected timeline for the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) for Drought and Wildfire in 2023 and 2024. On May 30, livestock producers should be able to sign up for the program.

May 16: The rule for the ELRP will be sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

May 23: Details of the program will be posted in the Federal Register.

May 29: Payment processing will begin.

May 30: Farm Service Agency county offices will sign and certify payments to producers.

For livestock producers who suffered losses due to flooding, the projected signup date will be Aug. 18. USDA stated the program for flooding losses "requires more time due to needed software changes."

For crop producers, the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program will address revenue losses for weather events in 2023 and 2024.

For crop farmers with "indemnified losses," the target date for enrollment is July 7 after the rule is submitted to the White House for approval.

For crop farmers with uncovered "shallow losses" or farmers who did not have crop insurance, as well as "quality losses" that take more time to collect data, USDA pushed back the timeframe for them to enroll to Sep. 15.

For farmers in some states, USDA is using block grant authority to pay farmers. Those producers would work with their state departments of Agriculture for payments. USDA states it has received general block grant requests from: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Congress also earmarked aid to smaller agricultural states that will flow through block grants: Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Currently, USDA is negotiating final agreements with those states on aid distribution. For states with a final contract agreement reached by May 28, then the contract with the state would be completed by June 13. For states that reach a final agreement by June 13, then the agreement would be completed by June 30.

Rollins on Wednesday hosted what USDA called the "inaugural Farmers First Roundtable" with Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, the board of directors from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and more than 20 farmers from 11 states. Rollins had stressed during a hearing that the farmers she was meeting with run small-scale operations.

Later this month, Rollins will launch a plan "to ensure smaller-scale, family-owned farming operations are economically viable and those who want to start and keep their own farms for generations to come are able to," USDA stated.

At the roundtable, Rollins also said she had signed a memorandum of understanding with NASDA to improve collaboration and will launch a plan for family-owned farms to help them keep the farm in the family.

Asked by a reporter at the roundtable about the Trump administration's plans to reorganize USDA and move some agencies out of Washington, Rollins said the plan will be announced in about a week and a half. She said that since most of the work of the U.S. Forest Service is in the West, it is questionable for the leadership of the Forest Service to be in Washington.

For more details on the aid enrollment, go to: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/…

Also see, "USDA's Rollins: Disaster Enrollment for $20 Billion in Aid Will Start Before End of May," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

DTN Political Correspondent Jerry Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

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