While a Republican filibuster has stalled the small business legislation, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has secured $1.5 billion in disaster aid for farmers in Arkansas and across the nation, according to The Hill blog.
The deal was an effort to make the small business legislation more attractive to Republicans who indicated that they may drop a filibuster if Democrats agreed to remove the disaster aid from the bill, according to Arkansas News Bureau.
Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, called Lincoln on Thursday to tell her that "the administration would find $1.5 billion within its budget to help farmers who are coping with natural disasters."
The disaster aid package will provide benefits to farmers who suffered from crop losses in counties declared "primary" disaster areas by USDA. It will also include funding for specialty crop losses and assistance to livestock producers and cotton seed handlers. To read a previous Ag&Food Law and Policy blog post on this issue, click here.
To read The Hill Blog story, click here.
To read the Arkansas News Bureau story, click here.
Posted: 07/30/2010
