Missouri Senators Frustrated With Lack of Farm Bill Movement

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Drought stricken livestock
farmers will have to wait at least another month for aid from the federal
government.

The U.S. Senate late last night
adjourned for the rest of August without taking action on a $325 million
package passed earlier in the day by the U.S. House. The adjournment does not
sit well with Missouri’s senators.

“The idea that we would decide
that we can put this off another month — that we can put those families in
jeopardy for another month of not knowing what their solution

 is, just seems to me to be totally
unacceptable,” says Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri). “The disaster
programs for livestock ran out on September 30th of last year. We have a chance
to do something about that and I’d like to see us do something about
that.”

Congress is now on vacation until
early September. Sen. Bunt tells colleagues he will continue to push for the
emergency aid package when Congress returns.

Meanwhile, Senator Claire McCaskill
(D-Missouri) released a statement saying, “We’ve got to act immediately to
renew essential disaster assistance programs. I’m also calling on the President
to marshal the full resources of the federal government to address the
worsening conditions across rural America.”

In a letter to the Chairman and
Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen.
McCaskill wrote a letter to the Senate Agriculture Committee calling for re-authorization of several disaster assistance programs that expired at the end
of 2011 and were reauthorized in the Farm Bill passed by the Senate in July.
She also called on President Obama to convene an Interagency Drought Task
Force.

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