The U.S. government needs to be able to respond more quickly to natural disasters that affect agriculture that accompany climate change, House Agriculture chairman David Scott, D-Ga., remarked during a "member day" hearing the panel held Tuesday.
"Many of our farms are done away with because we move too slow" in drafting and passing relief bills, he said. "We are working on a bill to set up a permanent disaster aid that is already there, that we can get help down to our farmers."
Scott noted the possibility of such a fund at USDA after another lawmaker on the panel said he wanted to get losses for 2020 included in the Wildfires and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP-Plus).
"Just let me tell you, this is an issue we are grappling with on the committee … disaster aid is so critical," said Scott. "I'm trying to put together an effort to create a separate immediate disaster aid fund, so it doesn't have to go the regular appropriations process (which) takes too long." He added that "this climate is really causing us to come up to our challenges."
However, it is not clear yet how any permanent disaster fund would impact the crop insurance program.