Vilsack Talks Ida Relief
I’m Bob Larson. Hurricane Ida has made a rough road even rougher for ag producers trying to get their products to market.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says after Ida damaged infrastructure in the South, getting shipping ports up and running is vital so we need to quickly assess the damage …
VILSACK … “But the President has made a major disaster declaration for Louisiana, an emergency declaration for Mississippi, so that begins the process of opening up potential assistance in terms of disaster and loans. If the governor's request more, or if our teams on the ground are able to document, there may be additional secretarial designations of specific counties that have been significantly impacted. That too will open up opportunities.”
Vilsack says USDA has programs to help people hit by Ida, but the damage, from Louisiana to New England demonstrates the need to infrastructure updates …
VILSACK … “We’re making sure that the existing facilities that we have are functional, and that requires us to obviously focus on the immediate. And then there's a longer-term necessity of investment in infrastructure, which is why Congress needs to complete its work on a bipartisan infrastructure and jobs bill, because that does contain significant resources to improve our roads and our highway systems, our inland waterway systems, our ports, our airports, as well as our rail system, all of which really will allow us to maintain a competitive advantage in exports.
Vilsack says we’ve had the advantage a better transportation system, but our competitors are investing and catching up, so we must take the next step.
