Farmer’s financial aid could reach $15.5 billion to offset the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. That money includes the $9.5 billion in aid from the Phase 3 Economic Stimulus Bill, plus an additional $6 billion that the USDA has remaining in its Commodity Credit Corp. account, according to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
An additional $14 billion the stimulus bill provided for replenishing the CCC account can’t be distributed until at least July, according to a statement that USDA provided to Agri-Pulse.
“We’re in the process right now of collecting proposals and ideas from every sector affected so we can be ... balanced and fair in the allocation of the $9.5 billion, as well as what we have currently in CCC, which is approximately $6 billion,” Perdue told reporters Wednesday.
The $14 billion “replenishment will not come until later, so we are limited right now on the CCC to what our cash flow is, which is about $6 billion,” he added.