Harder Leads Successful Effort to Secure Disaster Assistance for Farmers Impacted by Drought & Fire
Bill Harder championed for years was included in new bipartisan legislation passed through House Agriculture Committee
WASHINGTON — Today, Representative Josh Harder (CA-10) led a successful effort to include resources for farmers impacted by drought and wildfire in the bipartisan 2020 WHIP+ Reauthorization Act. Currently, the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+) can only provide direct assistance to farmers who experienced crop loss due to qualifying natural disasters in 2018 and 2019. Rep. Harder's language will open up funds to farmers who have lost crops to drought, fire, and other natural disasters in 2020 and 2021. Farmers can apply for funds through the US Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency. Right now, the Central Valley is experiencing one of the worst droughts in its history and farmers across the region are already choosing to fallow fields instead of plant new crops.
"Central Valley farmers don't just need help with the losses they suffered years ago, they need help with the losses they're suffering right now. The drought and wildfires we're seeing this year are nothing short of unprecedented, so our farmers deserve an unprecedented amount of resources to get through them," said Rep. Harder. "Since I first got to Congress, I've been pushing to get our farmers the resources they need, and I'm proud to have secured new funds for them in this bill."