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Source: US Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), 7/6/20
As
our nation continues the fight against COVID-19, our pork producers and poultry
farmers continue to deal with supply chain disruptions and backlogs. The
Responding to Epidemic Losses and Investing in the Economic Future Act (RELIEF
Act), which I recently introduced in the Senate, will provide much needed
additional resources that will allow producers to offset losses related to
COVID-19 and continue feeding our nation.
The bill would support producers that are faced with euthanizing
their animals due to COVID-19, provide resources for animal health laboratories
as they develop solutions to defend against emerging animal disease spread and
give additional authority to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary
through the Commodity Credit Corporation to deal with removal and disposal of
livestock for any public health emergency moving forward. The
full text of the RELIEF for Producers Act is here, and a section by section analysis is here. A summary is below.
Emergency Assistance for Livestock and Poultry Loss
- Would provide assistance to producers who
had to euthanize livestock due to lack of access to processing facilities.
- Livestock value would be calculated based
on the national average market value between March 1 and the date of
enactment.
- Reimbursements would be calculated for a
30-day period beginning with the date of initial depopulation, producers
will get 85 percent of the value of losses.
- Each 30 day period after that, the value
of losses would be reduced by 10 percent.
Animal Disease Prevention and Preparedness
- Animal health networks have been working
to assist and share resources with their public health partners to
supplement testing capabilities during the current public health emergency.
- This has resulted in reduction in
capacity for animal agriculture to respond to a foreign animal disease.
- This provision would provide $300 million
to support improved animal health surveillance and laboratories as they
supplement testing capabilities of public health laboratories during the
current public health emergency.
Emergency Authorities for the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)
- Would amend the CCC Charter Act to add
authority for the Secretary to deal with removal and disposal of livestock
and poultry due to supply chain interruption during a public health
emergency.
- Would add the authority to provide
assistance to agricultural processing plants in the event of a public
health emergency in order to assure the continuation of markets for
agricultural commodities.
All the best, Thom T
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