IARN — Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra and House Ag Committee Ranking Member GT Thompson of Pennsylvania stopped by IARN’s booth at the Iowa State Fair Wednesday morning to discuss the WHIP+ Reauthorization Act.
Late last month, the House Ag Committee unanimously passed a bill that makes 2020 derecho damage eligible for coverage under the WHIP+ Reauthorization Act. Introduced by Feenstra, the legislation would provide assistance to Iowa Ag producers who suffered losses from last year’s devastating derecho storm, which produced wind gusts comparable to a major tornado or hurricane. Feenstra provides an update on where the legislation currently stands.
“The derecho took out over 40 to 50 percent of our crop,” said Feenstra. “It was the most expensive thunderstorm ever in U.S. history. We’ve been working to get the derecho language in the USDA WHIP program. It passed the Ag committee and it’s now on the House floor. It’s going to get passed. It sounds like it’s going to get in the bill. There will be derecho and drought language and it will be retroactive. There’s still about $174 million unaccounted for. We’re hoping some of those dollars can be used through the USDA WHIP program.”
Congressman Thompson noted there’s no industry more vulnerable to weather than agriculture.
“Congressman Feenstra has done a great job with his leadership,” said Thompson. “July 27th, we passed the WHIP+ bill out of the House Agriculture Committee. Whether it’s storms, wind events, a polar vortex, or smoke impacting commodities out in the northwestern United States, we were able to put all of that into this WHIP+ bill. We extended that disaster relief into 20 and 21. We did it in a smart way. We never want to compromise crop insurance, so we made sure crop insurance was held harmless in this effort.”
Feenstra clarified that this bill isn’t adding money to the program; it’s just adding devastating winds as a qualifying natural disaster. A Farm Bureau report estimated $147.5 million in losses from the derecho remain unaccounted for, almost one year later.
