What's in the stimulus package for agriculture and rural areas? - Entrepreneur Generations

On Friday President Trump signed a $2 trillion stimulus spending bill aimed at providing relief to Americans struggling from the coronavirus pandemic. Here are some of the provisions with rural resonance.

"The bill provides $15.8 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to cover an expected jump in applications as more workers are laid off. But Democrats were unable to secure the 15 percent boost to households’ SNAP benefits they were seeking as a tradeoff for additional farm aid," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture. And, "the Depression-era financial institution known as the Commodity Credit Corporation would see its spending authority replenished to the tune of $14 billion. The package also sets up a $9.5 billion emergency fund for producers, including fresh fruit and vegetable growers, dairy farmers and cattle ranchers, along with local food systems like farmers markets."

USDA agencies will receive more than $285 million. "The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Food Safety Inspection Service, Agricultural Marketing Service and USDA’s rural development branch would each receive extra funding for emergency operations amid the pandemic," McCrimmon reports.

"The stimulus is the first disaster relief package to explicitly include local and regional food markets, according to Ferd Hoefner, senior strategic advisor at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition," McCrimmon reports.

The package includes $150 billion for hospitals and medical workers. "Hospitals and health systems will get $100 billion in emergency grants. Billions more will provide protective equipment for medical workers, ventilators for patients, testing supplies and new construction to house patients. The measure also boosts Medicare payments," Paige Winfield Cunningham reports for The Washington Post.

This item will be updated.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2UunPUj What's in the stimulus package for agriculture and rural areas? - Entrepreneur Generations

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