LegiStorm

Summary:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers several permanently authorized programs to help producers recover from natural disasters. Most of these programs offer financial assistance to producers for a loss in the production of crops or livestock. In addition to the production assistance programs, USDA also has several permanent disaster assistance programs that help producers repair damaged crop and forest land following natural disasters. These programs offer financial and technical assistance to producers to repair, restore, and mitigate damage o n private land. These emergency agricultural land assistance programs include the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), and the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. In addition to these programs, US DA also has flexibility in administering other programs that allow for support and repair of damaged cropland in the event of an emergency. Both ECP and EFRP are administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). ECP assists landowners in restoring agricult ural production damaged by natural disaster s . Participants are paid a percentage of the cost to restore the land to a productive state. ECP is available only on private land, and eligibility is determined locally. EFRP was created to as sist private forestl and owners to address dama ge caused by a natural disaster on non industrial private forest land. The EWP program and the EWP floodplain easement program are administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The EWP program assist s sponsors, landowners, and operators in implementing emergency recovery measures for runoff retardation and erosion prevention to relieve imminent hazards to life and propert y created by a natural disaster . In some cases this can include state and federal land. The EWP floodplain easement program is a mitigation program that pays for permanent easements on private land meant to safeguard lives and property from future floods, drought, and the consequences of erosion . Funding f or emergency agricultural land assistance varies greatly from year to year. Since most agricultural land assistance programs do not receive the level of attention that triggers a standalone supplemental bill , annual appropriation bills are increasingly see n as a vehicle for funding these programs. The timing of annual appropriation bills may not coincide with natural disasters, thus leaving some programs without funding during times of high request volume. This irregular funding method has le d some to sugge st th e authorization of permanent mandatory funding similar to what was authorized in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 farm bill, P.L. 113 - 79 ) for agricultural disaster as sistance programs t hat support crop and livestock production loss . Restrictions placed on supplemental appropriations for disaster assistance have changed the way the agricultural land assistance programs allocate funding, potentially assisting fewer natur al disasters. Language in t he Budget Control Act of 2011 ( P.L. 112 - 25 ) limit s the use of emergency supplemental funding for disaster relief. Specifically , funding used for disaster relief must be used for activities carried out pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act, P.L. 93 - 288 ) for FY 2012 through FY 2021. This means funds appropriated through emergency supplemental act s for disaster relief for the se 10 years may apply only to activities with a Stafford Act designation (generally requiring a federal disaster declaration f rom either the President or a state official). Since emergency agricultural land assistance programs do not normally require a federal disaster declaration, the Stafford Act requirement has become a limiting factor in the way agricultural land assistance p rograms work, potentially assisting fewer natural disaster events.