Disaster Enrollment for $20 Billion in Aid Will Start Before End of May

May 7, 2025

USDA will open a portal before the end of the month for farmers to apply for nearly $21 billion in aid for dealing with natural disasters over the past two years, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told senators on Tuesday.

Rollins testified before a U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture to discuss plans for the FY 2026 budget, which includes roughly $4.6 billion in cuts. Senators asked about a range of funding cuts, facilities in their own states and USDA's cancellation and freezing of programs in the first three months of the Trump administration.

Also discussed was when USDA plans to open applications for roughly $20.5 billion in natural disaster aid passed by Congress in December. Rollins repeatedly told lawmakers USDA will announce applications for disaster aid, "in the coming weeks, by the end of May."

Passed quickly after Hurricane Helene hit last fall, the disaster aid package covers an array of natural disasters that hit agriculture in 2023 and 2024. Among the funds, $2 billion was set aside specifically for livestock producers. Assistance from the package could go to states in the form of block grants as well as direct compensation to farmers.

Rollins also told the subcommittee USDA has moved almost $8 billion under the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) since opening the program in late March. A USDA dashboard for the program shows $7.3 billion has been paid to more than 472,000 farmers thus far.

"From what I have seen you are following very well what we laid out in that emergency assistance," said Sen John Hoeven, R-N.D., chairman of the subcommittee.

Rollins noted creating a program for natural disasters is a little more complicated than ECAP, which had prescribed details in the legislation on how payments would be distributed. "It's a little more complicated because we don't have specifics," she said.

Hoeven noted Congress expects the disaster payments to operate similar to the Wildfires and Hurricanes Indemnity Program (WHIP) created in 2017. The Biden administration later drafted a different disaster program, the Emergency Relief Program (ERP), which sparked complaints because the payment formula leaned more heavily toward smaller producers than WHIP.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., told Rollins about farmers in his state who need those disaster payments to keep operating. He specifically cited examples from a pecan farmer and a cotton farmer. Rollins replied, "Within a matter of weeks, the portal will open on those grant applications."

Source: DTN