Isakson Urges Support for Drought Disaster Declaration

Jun 09, 2011

WASHINGTON –U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., joined members of the Georgia delegation this week in urging Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to declare 22 drought-stricken counties in Georgia disaster areas, as requested by Gov. Nathan Deal. Since December, many parts of Georgia have experienced extreme weather conditions and suffered numerous crop losses. With the USDA Secretarial Disaster Designation, Georgia farmers will be able to apply for emergency loans and other benefits to ease losses.

The text of the letter is below:

The Honorable Tom Vilsack U.S. Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Ave., SW Washington, DC 20250

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Over the past several months numerous counties in Georgia have experienced extreme weather conditions. Georgia’s agricultural producers continue to experience drought conditions that have kept many of them from putting any seed into the ground and have left our livestock producers struggling to secure adequate feedstocks.

Although parts of Georgia have received rainfall over the past few weeks, as much as 54 percent of the State has been documented as suffering from Extreme Drought conditions by the U.S. Drought Monitor as of June 2, 2011.

On June 3, 2011, the Honorable Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia, sent a letter with a list of eligible counties as recommended by the Georgia USDA State Emergency Board; therefore, we would encourage you to review and designate any eligible counties as Secretarial Disaster Areas as expeditiously as possible. It is vitally important that eligible producers suffering from disaster are able to utilize any federal assistance that may help offset further losses this early in the 2011 crop year.

We look forward to working with you throughout this process to ensure that eligible producers suffering from disaster are able to utilize any available federal assistance in a timely manner.