The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ORANGE COUNTY ONION FARMERS AND DISASTER ASSISTANCE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2149 on April 20, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ORANGE COUNTY ONION FARMERS AND DISASTER ASSISTANCE
(Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, in May of last year, New York's Hudson Valley farmers were hard hit by a severe hailstorm that devastated their crops. Particularly impacted were our onion growers.
Already facing difficulties due to a prior storm, our Orange County onion growers found themselves confronted by a new hardship. Their hardship was compounded by a failed Federal Government crop insurance program.
Most of our farmers who had no significant yields as a result of this storm were forced to zero out their crops. And when they applied for crop insurance, they found a cumbersome, poorly managed system that provided absolutely no relief.
Following last year's disaster, Congress passed the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1999, appropriating $5.9 billion for emergency assistance. To date, our farmers have not received one penny of these funds, while payments were made shortly after its enactment to dairy, to cotton, to wheat and hog farmers.
The Agriculture Department has not responded to our farmers' needs. Following this storm, starting in February, Secretary Glickman instituted a sign-up period for disaster funding, stating that the delay was due to working out a proper formula.
Mr. Speaker, I urge Secretary Glickman to release these funds immediately to prevent any further delay so that our growers may be able to continue their farming.
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