According to The New York Times, Senator Blanche Lincoln who is an Arkansas Democrat and the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has been urgently attempting to gather $1.5 billion for relief for Arkansas and other nearby states that were damaged by the heavy rains. The money is set to go to rice an cotton growers who suffered an average loss of 30% in crops. However the amount of money given towards each individual farm will not be based on the actual loss of each farm but on the farms size regardless of market conditions. An analysis by the Environmental Working Group, stated that about $210 million would go to Arkansas which would include 270 farms that would be eligible to $100,000 each.
The deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, Rob Nabors, addressed a letter to the Agriculture Department that the administration is committed to the proposal by the legislature. However the bureau nor the Agriculture Department have any idea on where to get the proposed about of money. The chairman of the House of the Agriculture stated that " there is no way that they can do this administratively" and believes that it is just to authorize legislation.
I agree with Collin Peterson, the chairman of the House of Agriculture, that since our nation is in great debt it is definitely extremely hard for the government to come up with this amount of money. Although Rob Nabors claims that the administration will do all they can to follow through with the proposal regarding the amount of money given to each farm in Arkansas, there is not much that they can do right now. I believe that the Congress along with the administration desperately need to work together right now to constitute an aid program for those farmers in need.
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