Hoeven, Tester introduce disaster aid bill for livestock, bees, farm raised fish

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., the ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who also serves on the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, today introduced bipartisan legislation to improve livestock disaster assistance.

They said in a news release that the bill would:

▪ Align coverage between the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) and Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP).

▪ Increase producer assistance under LFP to more accurately compensate them for feed costs.

▪ Specify transportation costs for feed and water as covered losses under ELAP.

▪ Make these program improvements permanent.

“Our livestock producers are facing real challenges during this drought,” Hoeven said.

“Our bipartisan legislation makes common-sense improvements to the Livestock Forage and Emergency Livestock Assistance Programs to better meet the needs on the ground. Our ranchers are really up against it and this bipartisan legislation is about doing all we can to help them through this severe weather.”

“We are experiencing a devastating drought that has touched every corner of Montana and put a real hurt on livestock producers in our state,” said Tester.

“This bipartisan bill will beef up critical livestock disaster programs, providing additional certainty so Montana ranchers can weather this year’s drought and emerge whole on the other side of this crisis.”

–The Hagstrom Report