New proposal looks at livestock disaster assistance

US Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) recently reintroduced a bill to assist agricultural producers after adverse weather events.

The Livestock Disaster Assistance Improvement Act directs the US Department of Agriculture to improve the accuracy of the US Drought Monitor (USDM), which factors into disaster programs.

“South Dakota farmers and ranchers are all too familiar with working through extreme weather conditions, especially drought,” Thune said. “These common-sense updates to disaster programs would help provide greater and expedited assistance to producers when they need it the most. I’m proud to lead this bipartisan legislation that would make the Drought Monitor a more effective tool and help ensure USDA programs are using accurate and consistent data in administering programs that are designed to help the agriculture community.”

Some of the information from the legislation would include clarifying state and federal grazing permit holders who are eligible for the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP).

One example would be the Farm Service Agency (FSA), which waives the 30-day public comment period for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) applications during a drought emergency. Another area was the BLM accepting archeological reviews completed by Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) field staff during a drought emergency.