screwing “the patriots”
Business
As shutdown stalls farm bailout, Trump team extends application deadline
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue speaks while U.S. Vice President Pence listens. The Trump administration's aid package is aimed at U.S. farmers hurt by the trade war. (Zach Gibson/Bloomberg)
By Jeff Stein
January 8 at 12:00 PM PT
President Trump’s program to send billions of dollars to farmers hurt by his trade war with China has been stalled by the partial government shutdown, as the Agriculture Department office responsible for administering the payouts is closed for lack of funding.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Tuesday that the department has extended the deadline for farmers to apply for bailout payments. The application window was slated to close Jan. 15, but Perdue said Tuesday that the deadline will be extended until at least weeks after the shutdown ends.
The shutdown caused the Agriculture Department to run out of money on Dec. 28 to keep Farm Service Agency offices open.
“Using existing funds, we were able to keep FSA offices open as long as possible, but unfortunately had to close them when funding ran out,” Perdue said in a statement. “We will therefore extend the application deadline for a period of time equal to the number of business days FSA offices were closed, once the government shutdown ends.”
Amid criticism from Republican farm state lawmakers on the impact of its trade war with China, the Trump administration this summer unilaterally authorized up to $12 billion in bailout payments to farmers. China has slapped retaliatory tariffs on a range of U.S. exports, including agricultural products, amid the wider trade spat.
The administration’s bailout included about $11 billion in direct cash assistance to farmers — the bulk of which would go to soybean producers — as well as $1 billion to purchase excess food supplies to distribute to food banks and nutrition programs across the country.
Bailout checks have continued to go out during the shutdown for farmers who had already certified their 2018 crop production. About $5.2 billion in bailout payments have been made since the program began, including approximately 360,000 payments since the federal shutdown began on Dec. 21, 2018, according to Tim Murtaugh, a USDA spokesman.
But farmers who had not certified their crop production cannot do so, or receive bailout checks, until the shutdown ends. Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, said many farmers had late harvests this year and have not been able to certify their crop production.
“There’s a lot of worry,” Steenhoek said.
The shutdown started Dec. 22 amid an impasse over Trump’s demand that any plan to extend government funding included billions in taxpayer funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has previously, repeatedly promised that wall would be paid for by Mexico.
Jeff Stein is a policy reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, Stein was a congressional reporter for Vox, where he wrote primarily about the Democratic Party and the left. In 2014, he founded the local news nonprofit the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Business
As shutdown stalls farm bailout, Trump team extends application deadline
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue speaks while U.S. Vice President Pence listens. The Trump administration's aid package is aimed at U.S. farmers hurt by the trade war. (Zach Gibson/Bloomberg)
By Jeff Stein
January 8 at 12:00 PM PT
President Trump’s program to send billions of dollars to farmers hurt by his trade war with China has been stalled by the partial government shutdown, as the Agriculture Department office responsible for administering the payouts is closed for lack of funding.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Tuesday that the department has extended the deadline for farmers to apply for bailout payments. The application window was slated to close Jan. 15, but Perdue said Tuesday that the deadline will be extended until at least weeks after the shutdown ends.
The shutdown caused the Agriculture Department to run out of money on Dec. 28 to keep Farm Service Agency offices open.
“Using existing funds, we were able to keep FSA offices open as long as possible, but unfortunately had to close them when funding ran out,” Perdue said in a statement. “We will therefore extend the application deadline for a period of time equal to the number of business days FSA offices were closed, once the government shutdown ends.”
Amid criticism from Republican farm state lawmakers on the impact of its trade war with China, the Trump administration this summer unilaterally authorized up to $12 billion in bailout payments to farmers. China has slapped retaliatory tariffs on a range of U.S. exports, including agricultural products, amid the wider trade spat.
The administration’s bailout included about $11 billion in direct cash assistance to farmers — the bulk of which would go to soybean producers — as well as $1 billion to purchase excess food supplies to distribute to food banks and nutrition programs across the country.
Bailout checks have continued to go out during the shutdown for farmers who had already certified their 2018 crop production. About $5.2 billion in bailout payments have been made since the program began, including approximately 360,000 payments since the federal shutdown began on Dec. 21, 2018, according to Tim Murtaugh, a USDA spokesman.
But farmers who had not certified their crop production cannot do so, or receive bailout checks, until the shutdown ends. Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, said many farmers had late harvests this year and have not been able to certify their crop production.
“There’s a lot of worry,” Steenhoek said.
The shutdown started Dec. 22 amid an impasse over Trump’s demand that any plan to extend government funding included billions in taxpayer funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has previously, repeatedly promised that wall would be paid for by Mexico.
Jeff Stein is a policy reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, Stein was a congressional reporter for Vox, where he wrote primarily about the Democratic Party and the left. In 2014, he founded the local news nonprofit the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
