Booker, Klobuchar, Blumenthal and Colleagues Urge Secretary Rollins to Ensure Disaster Aid Reaches Small Farmers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and their colleagues wrote a letter calling on USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to ensure that the $21 billion in emergency federal aid secured by Congress last December reaches small farmers.

“Many small farms grow multiple crops--including fruit and vegetable varieties that do not have crop-specific insurance options--making it more difficult to purchase crop insurance and subsequently, more difficult to collect and report loss data for emergency programs if they are uninsured. We have also heard from our producers that in previous emergency funding assistance programs provided by USDA, applications were burdensome and difficult to navigate,” the Senators wrote. 

The Senators stressed the importance of USDA helping farmers apply for disaster assistance, as Congress directed.

“We urge you to robustly invest in this technical assistance such that every interested farmer is able to access emergency support. We request that you provide us with the status of how technical assistance will be delivered amidst this period of reduced staffing at USDA,” the Senators continued. 

“It will likely take longer for small farmers to apply and for USDA to process their claims, given the natural complexity of multi-crop farms, the fact that small farms are more likely to be uninsured, and the fact that farmers with smaller operations are stretched thin already. We request that you ensure that there is still funding available to compensate these farmers, if other payments are issued faster,” the Senators continued.

The Senators also requested that some of the emergency funds be used to assist affected farmers with purchasing crop insurance to protect them in future years, that the USDA compensate uninsured farmers based on farm-specific revenue losses, and that the agency publish detailed data of how the disaster aid was distributed. 

The Senators requested an update on the status of these requests by March 31, 2025. 

The letter is cosigned by U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Tina Smith (D-MN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Alex Padilla (D-CA).

To read the full text of the letter, click here.