Secretary Dan Glickman

Because of the pressing need of farmers and ranchers across the country as a result of historically low commodity prices, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the agriculture appropriations bill, that included $8.8 billion in emergency assistance. The cash crunch facing farmers compelled us at USDA to hit the ground running. Our folks were well-prepared to implement the bill’s provisions even before its final passage.

So one business day after the bill was signed, USDA started issuing payments. By Thanksgiving virtually all of the $5.5 billion in income assistance--paid as supplemental Market Transition Payments--will be in the hands of farmers.

Over the next couple of months, we expect to make the rest of the income assistance payments, including those for peanuts, approximately $42 million, tobacco, $328 million, and dairy, $128 million.

The bill also includes $1.2 billion in crop loss disaster assistance and $200 million for livestock assistance. USDA will administer crop loss payments in a similar fashion to last year and, with the software already in place, we expect the process to be very smooth. We expect sign-up to begin by the end of the year. And for those who sign up, we will provide 35 percent of the money in advance on approved applications.

The bill also offers $400 million for an estimated 25 percent crop insurance premium discount effective immediately.

The excessive nature of the problems faced by American agriculture with some of the lowest commodity prices in decades has led to this emergency assistance which comes on top of other payment programs already in place. All in all total direct assistance to farmers for 1999 will be $22.5 billion, the highest in history.

At USDA we are working on additional ideas to improve the 1996 Farm Bill to help shore up the farm safety net and provide farmers with the tools they need to prosper in a free-market economy.

Many in Congress have indicated they will be putting forward some ideas of their own. I look forward to working with Congress early in the year, free of the pressures of the fall harvest and the budget battles of the new fiscal year, to fashion a bipartisan bill that will provide greater security for the men and women of American agriculture.