CARES Act and Agriculture Pt 2

CARES Act and Agriculture Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. The CARES Act has been signed into law to give Americans more than $2-trillion in relief from our new coronavirus realities that have forced many people out of work entirely and to working from home for many others.

U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says the package includes nearly $50-billion in aid for many different ag sectors …

NEWHOUSE … “A big part of the bill provides almost $9.5-billion for specialty crops, including dairy and ranching. So, I’m guessing that that money will likely go to an emergency rule-making process through USDA so that the Secretary will be able to set up a program to disperse and provide benefit to specialty crop producers.”

But, Newhouse says the timing of this is also challenging …

NEWHOUSE … “As we all know, agriculture has been struggling over the past couple of years because of trade issues, labor issues, and so this is a particularly critical time where we do all we can to make sure our ag industry can not only survive, but prosper in such a way to be able to provide necessary food supplies for the country.”

Fortunately, Newhouse says the State Department has put a temporary fix on the foreign labor situation…

NEWHOUSE … “Another aspect of that is we’ve had concerns that our needed labor force, H-2A workers in particular would perhaps have a harder time getting across the border, the state and labor agencies are continue to process those applications.”

Tune in tomorrow for more on the work being done to keep ag moving.

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