Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) requested $1.5 million in disaster aid and "secured a promise from White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel in July that the money would be paid out." The amount distributed is about half of the figure Lincoln asked for and "would go to 26 states and 1,000 counties."
Some are critical of the aid package saying that it is an "election-year giveaway" because "the threshold for assistance is low -- farmers only have to show 5 percent losses to be eligible." Lincoln, however, says that she "makes no apologies for helping the farm industry in her state and elsewhere. She says that southern crops like rice and cotton "are more expensive to grow" and "heavy rains decimated many crops twice in 2009."
To read the Associated Press story, click here.
Posted: 09/17/2010
