The Senate considers the House version of the HEROES Act, but Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says that more is needed for certain sectors of agriculture.
The HEROES Act would set aside $10 billion dollars to pay livestock producers for animals they have to euthanize and although the house passed the bill, some Senators oppose it as written. Sen. Grassley says that before they shell out any more dollars, they need to take stock of what has been used in the last aid package.
He says that although the House is actively pushing for more funding, he would like to make sure it goes to the groups that need it the most. According to Sen. Grassley, “Every day somebody talks about we need to do this and we need to do that, and for instance I’ve written a letter to the leaders saying...that because of depopulation of animals and birds we need to think about when we do another one of helping that, because the $24 billion dollars we put in the first CARES package was probably not enough in that category.”
Congress estimates the $1.5 trillion dollar HEROES Act would spend more than $52 billion dollars on food and agriculture in the next five years. The bill would also make more than $16 billion in direct payments to farmers, fund dairy donation programs, and modify the dairy margin coverage program.
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