Some in the United States Senate, including John Thune, believe there should be a permanent disaster fund for farmers rather than dealing with each calamitous episode separately:
“Farmers need help when they suffer disasters, it's that simple,” Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said at a news conference surrounded by a half dozen of his Senate colleagues, including Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is responsible for writing the 2007 Farm Bill. “We should not have to wait to piggy back onto some other national disaster that gets perhaps a little bit more prominence than we get,” said Baucus.
Congress now passes disaster aid for farmers on a case-by-case basis. Since 1998, Congress has approved 23 disaster assistance bills totaling more than $47 billion. But National Farmers Union president Tom Buis said it's unfair to make farmers face uncertainty over whether Congress will help them from year to year. He called lack of a permanent aid plan “the most serious flaw in the safety net of American agriculture.”
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Resistance: The idea of establishing a permanent disaster fund has met resistance from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who has said he believes the money could be better spent on other programs like conservation and nutrition.
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