[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 166 (Monday, November 17, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H11167-H11169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING FOR DESIGNATION OF A DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DISASTER
LIAISON
Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 3157) to provide for the designation of a Department of
Agriculture disaster liaison to assist State and local employees of the
Department in coordination with other disaster agencies in response to
a federally declared disaster area as a result of a disaster, as
amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 3157
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. LIAISON FOR DISASTER EMERGENCIES.
(a) Deployment of Disaster Liaison.--The Secretary of
Agriculture shall deploy disaster liaisons to State and local
Department of Agriculture Service Centers in a federally
declared disaster area whenever Federal Emergency Management
Agency Personnel are deployed in that area, to coordinate
Department programs with the appropriate disaster agencies
designated under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.).
(b) Qualifications.--Disaster liaisons shall be selected
from among Department employees who have experience providing
emergency disaster relief in federally declared disaster
areas.
(c) Duties.--A disaster liaison shall--
(1) serve as a liaison to State and Federal Emergency
Services;
(2) be deployed to a federally declared disaster area to
coordinate Department interagency programs in assistance to
agricultural producers in the declared disaster area;
(3) facilitate the claims and applications of agricultural
producers who are victims of the disaster that are forwarded
to the Department by the appropriate State Department of
Agriculture agency director; and
(4) coordinate with the Director of the State office of the
appropriate Department agency to assist with the application
for and distribution of economic assistance.
(d) Duration of Deployment.--The deployment of a disaster
liaison under subsection (a) may not exceed 30 days.
(e) Definition.--In this section, the term ``federally
declared disaster area'' means--
(1) an area covered by a Presidential declaration of major
disaster, including a disaster caused by a wildfire, issued
under section 301 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170); or
(2) determined to be a disaster area, including a disaster
caused by a wildfire, by the Secretary under subpart A of
part 1945 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht).
Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3157, a bill to designate and deploy U.S.
Department of Agriculture liaison teams to areas of the country
declared disaster areas, was approved by the Committee on Agriculture
on October 29 of this year.
The bill seeks to ensure prompt Federal assistance to agricultural
producers in rural areas affected by natural disasters that have been
declared by the President or the Secretary of Agriculture. The teams
will coordinate the activities of USDA employees assisting agricultural
producers within the disaster area. The teams will facilitate the
making of claims and applications for economic assistance of affected
producers and others as they deal with the agencies designated under
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.
During the business meeting to consider H.R. 3157, the committee
considered and adopted as a substitute amendment four changes to the
legislation as originally introduced by the gentleman from Missouri
(Mr. Blunt). These changes include directing the Secretary of
Agriculture to use USDA Food and Agriculture Council as a point of
contact for the liaison team, requiring the Secretary to make the
deployment only when FEMA has been sent to the disaster area, providing
that the team will conduct and conclude its business within 30 days of
the deployment, and, finally, adding wildfire as a specific disaster
under a secretarial disaster declaration.
The bill before the House this afternoon makes a minor amendment to
the
[[Page H11168]]
committee-reported bill by returning to the Secretary of Agriculture
the full discretion to assign USDA employees to the liaison positions,
instead of acting through the Department's Food and Agriculture
Council.
As I am certain my colleagues can understand, natural disasters over
large geographical areas often are followed by chaotic circumstances on
the ground. Traditionally, USDA has had a significant role along with
FEMA in assisting farmers, ranchers, and other rural residents; and
this bill attempts to make those circumstances more orderly and more
predictable for our rural constituents during a time when those
residents and the communities in which they live need Federal help.
I hope the House will join with me in supporting this bill that seeks
to improve Federal disaster assistance on our farms and in rural
communities.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3157 is a bipartisan piece of legislation that
attempts to address the very serious issue of USDA program coordination
and information dissemination during times of federally declared
national disasters.
Currently, there is no statutory requirement that USDA make a
representative available at the Emergency Operations Center following a
catastrophic disaster. As a result, if a farmer or rancher suffers a
loss due to a natural disaster, there is no USDA point of contact on
site to answer questions or provide information about departmental
relief programs. Such information is obviously critical, and this
legislation simply ensures that farmers and ranchers will have access
to an on-site USDA point of contact.
While expressing support for this bill, let me briefly address a
bigger issue for farmers and ranchers that have been adversely affected
by a disaster. The fact is there are only minimal standing disaster
programs within USDA to help farmers and ranchers deal with the variety
of losses that can occur as a result of a natural disaster. In effect,
all that USDA on-site points of contact can do is to tell farmers and
ranchers, Sorry, the United States Department of Agriculture cannot
help you. In addition, farmers and ranchers do not qualify for Small
Business Administration programs and, in point of fact, receive very
little help from FEMA.
So again, while I support H.R. 3157, the bigger question is what can
be done to provide farmers and ranchers with greater certainty in terms
of permanent disaster programs so that they may have some hope of
recovering from such disasters.
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge support for the Rural
Disaster Liaison Bill (H.R. 3157).
This past May, my district saw devastating losses in the aftermath of
a series of tornadoes.
Estimates indicate that our agriculture community in southwest
Missouri lost an estimated $27 billion in damages.
On the ground at home following those tornadoes, I noticed that the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had no staff in the statewide
disaster field office (DFO) where officials from FEMA and the Small
Business Administration were helping individuals and business owners.
Because Disaster Act declarations make no arrangements for a USDA
representative, a single voice from USDA was noticeably absent on the
ground in Southwest Missouri during disaster response discussions in
the days and weeks after those terrible tornadoes.
This legislation will bring greater coordination from the USDA's
three major agencies--Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Farm
Service Agency and Rural Development--by requiring that a liaison from
USDA be a member of future Federal disaster response teams. This
individual would be dispatched to a disaster to work side-by-side with
representatives from the local Farm Service Agency (FSA) for 30 days to
help find relief for those disaster victims. Once the 30 days are up,
the liaison will return to his or her post in Washington, DC, and
continue to work on behalf of the farmers and others who need the
services that the USDA provides.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that a disaster response team is never necessary
in any of the districts my colleagues represent. However, should
disaster strike, let's make sure that our agriculture communities are
represented and that they get the help they deserve in a prompt
fashion.
I urge my colleagues to support the passage of H.R. 3157.
Mr. BACA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3157. I am proud to
support this legislation that will help farmers recover from national
disasters because I believe that far too often, farmers are not thought
of during times of emergency.
Representative Blunt has authored a good bill. I supported it in the
House Agriculture Committee and I even introduced an amendment that
would make sure that the people in my home State of California, who
suffered from the recent wildfires, could be helped by this bill.
Too many Californians have no idea how they will get by without their
orchards, olive groves, and other farming operations that burned to the
ground.
This legislation will compel the Department of Agriculture to create
disaster liaisons and dispatch them to disaster zones.
In California, we have suffered greatly from several wildfires that
have caused great damage throughout the state.
In San Bernardino County, over 40,000 people were evacuated from
their homes, and nearly 1,200 buildings burned to the ground.
Far too many people lost their homes, farms, and in some cases--their
lives--to these wild fires.
This bill and my amendment are only a small step in the right
direction. We must funnel Federal attention and resources to rebuild
after these deadly wildfires and help prevent similar events in the
future.
Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3157 would require USDA to designate
employees of the Department to serve as disaster liaisons to State and
local emergency agencies in a federally declared disaster area. These
liaisons would be responsible for coordinating interagency programs and
assisting agricultural producers in the area to navigate through the
bureaucracy of Federal Government support.
I want to thank Majority Whip Blunt for taking the initiative to
introduce this legislation on behalf of farmers and growers in the
United States. I was more than happy to sign on as the lead cosponsor
because of a situation faced by a handful of growers in my
congressional district earlier this year.
During this past April, an unusual hailstorm descended upon Merced
Country, ruining acres and acres of peach orchards. That event set off
a chain of events involving numerous agencies within USDA, which in
turn led to me and my staff to negotiate on their behalf with countless
officials and administrators throughout USDA attempting to elicit some
type of assistance from the Federal Government. It was a trying
experience to say the least.
When a disaster happens now, multiple USDA agencies involved with
numerous programs actively assess damage in a disaster area, while
compiling information from hundreds of phone calls and by talking to
numerous disaster victims. This information is then assembled and sent
to representatives of the State. The farmer is left to fend for himself
or herself with no point of contact for follow up.
Those situations are what Mr. Blunt and I are trying to avoid with
this legislation.
When enacted, H.R. 3157 will require USDA to recognize the importance
of quick response time to agricultural disasters by deploying an
experienced disaster specialist to an affected area. This official will
facilitate such things as crop insurance claims processing and other
applications for economic assistance as well as provide one legitimate
source of information and comfort from the Federal Government.
My growers affected by the hailstorm were continually given
conflicting information from different USDA employees. It is imperative
that growers, especially the more skeptical growers in my home State of
California, be able to receive clear and concise information on how to
proceed after a Federal disaster as been declared in order to most
efficiently proceed to the next crop year.
H.R. 3157 is the right thing to do for America's agricultural
industry and I am proud to be a sponsor of this bill.
Again, I would like to thank Chairman Goodlatte, Ranking Member
Stenholm, and Majority Whip Blunt for recognizing the importance of the
legislation. I urge an aye vote on this bill.
Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3157,
which will direct the Secretary of Agriculture to designate employees
of the Department of Agriculture to serve as liaisons between the
federal agencies and state and local governments in the event of a
federally declared disaster area.
As Delegate and long-term resident of Guam, I can attest to the
debilitating state of confusion in the after math of a disaster. Just
last year, individuals and businesses on Guam sustained millions of
dollars in damage as result of the destruction wrought by two
supertyphoons, Cha'at'an in May and Pongsona in December, 2002. While
federal agencies worked quickly to implement disaster recovery plans
for Guam, the central communications
[[Page H11169]]
mechanism between GovGuam and the various agencies through FEMA and its
designated liaisons was crucial to the typhoon recovery.
H.R. 3157 will create a consistent mechanism of communication between
the federal government and state and local entities for agricultural
issues in the event of a disaster. I strongly support passage of H.R.
3157 and encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of this important
disaster legislation.
Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3157, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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