[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          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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