Warren, Markey Urge Schumer, McConnell, Senate Appropriation Leaders to Provide Robust Disaster Relief Funding for Massachusetts Farmers

Letter

Dear Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Chair Murray, and Vice Chair Collins:

As you consider a final package of FY2024 appropriations, we urge you to include robust
funding for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to compensate farmers for
uncovered losses caused by natural disasters.

We have repeatedly asked Congress to provide disaster assistance for farmers and were pleased
that President Biden’s October 25, 2023 domestic supplemental funding request included help
for farmers and ranchers hit by disaster. However, the President’s $2.8 billion request is woefully
insufficient to cover the $8.5 billion in expected losses incurred nationwide in calendar year
2023. And the $8.5 billion estimate does not include losses suffered by farmers with whom
USDA has not had contact.
In Massachusetts alone, crop losses have resulted in nearly $50 million in damage, mostly due to
historic flooding across western Massachusetts that damaged 1,000 acres of farmland and
resulted in near-total crop loss for some farmers. The July floods were followed by flash floods
in August and September 2023 that destroyed additional farms — flooding that resulted from the
second heaviest summer rainfall on record in Massachusetts. Frost and freezing also hit
Massachusetts farmers last year, wiping out virtually all of some farmers’ crops and destroying some farms’ ability to grow fruit for the year. Altogether, last year’s extreme weather events
ruined nearly 3,000 acres of crops in the state.

Consequently, USDA issued disaster declarations, which unlocked low-interest loans for farmers
and provided access to the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), a cost-share program that
covers 75 to 90 percent of the cost of repairing damaged farmland. But, USDA loans and costshare assistance are insufficient to meet the current needs of Massachusetts farms – which are predominantly family-owned and 95 percent of which qualify as small farms.Many
Massachusetts farmers already took on debt in order to plant last year’s crops – for which they
earned little to no revenue – and cannot afford to repay additional loans, even at a low interest
rate. Additionally, many Massachusetts farmers cannot afford to pay even their minority share
of the ECP cost-share program, and those that can are able to use ECP funds only for farmland
restoration, not for crop loss compensation. Meanwhile, most of the state’s farmers lack crop
insurance, leaving them without access to compensation for these weather-related losses.
Massachusetts farms are in dire need of grant-based federal aid to compensate for crop loss. We
request that Congress appropriate funding to USDA that can be distributed to Massachusetts
farmers in the form of direct grants, to compensate for the loss of revenue and quality or
production losses of crops (including milk), due to flooding, freeze, tornadoes, and frost. Once
appropriated, USDA can distribute the funds through the Emergency Relief Program (ERP),
created in past years to offer crop-loss grants to farmers. Alternatively, Congress could
appropriate this funding in the form of a block grant to the Massachusetts Department of
Agricultural Resources (MDAR), which already has established a well-functioning system for
distributing funds to individual farmers. MDAR estimates nearly $49 million in farm losses in
the state.
Thank you for your consideration of our request and for your support of Massachusetts’ response
and recovery process.

Source