Thune Urges USDA Secretary to Prioritize Improvements to U.S. Drought Monitor During Farm Bill Implementation
“As you continue working on farm bill implementation, I request that you prioritize [improvements to the Drought Monitor] in the applicable mission area, especially as we approach the summer months when accuracy of the Drought Monitor will be critical for producers.”
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a longtime member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today wrote to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue to encourage him to prioritize several Thune-authored provisions of the 2018 farm bill that relate to improving the accuracy of the Drought Monitor. These provisions of the new law were first introduced in May 2018 as part of Thune’s Improved Soil Moisture and Precipitation Monitoring Act of 2018, which provides tools and direction to USDA to help improve the accuracy of the Drought Monitor and requires the coordination of USDA agencies that use precipitation data to determine livestock grazing loss assistance and stocking rates. Thune drafted and introduced this legislation after hearing directly from several concerned ranchers at a 2018 agriculture roundtable event in South Dakota.
“During the lengthy 2017 drought that plagued Western South Dakota, I heard from a number of producers that were concerned with the accuracy of the Drought Monitor, especially given its use in determining grazing disaster assistance through programs administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) … As you continue working on farm bill implementation, I request that you prioritize the aforementioned provisions in the applicable mission area, especially as we approach the summer months when accuracy of the Drought Monitor will be critical for producers,” wrote Thune.
Thune also called for USDA to coordinate efforts among its agencies to ensure the annual establishment of grazing carrying capacities on U.S. Forest Service land is more consistent with assistance offered under other USDA grazing loss assistance programs.
Full text of the letter is below:
The Honorable Sonny Perdue
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250
Dear Secretary Perdue:
I write to bring to your attention provisions of the 2018 farm bill that aim to strengthen the U.S. Drought Monitor, with one of its critical functions determining livestock grazing loss assistance thresholds.
During the lengthy 2017 drought that plagued Western South Dakota, I heard from a number of producers that were concerned with the accuracy of the Drought Monitor, especially given its use in determining grazing disaster assistance through programs administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). Additionally, I heard from producers frustrated that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was not fully utilizing data gathered by existing reporting stations in determining indemnities for insured grazing losses under the Pasture, Rangeland, Forage Insurance Program administered by the Risk Management Agency (RMA).
The 2018 farm bill includes provisions to help address these issues. Specifically, Sec. 12512 of the 2018 farm bill requires USDA to coordinate with relevant agencies to improve the accuracy of the Drought Monitor. It also requires USDA to use consistent data to the maximum extent practicable for programs that are based on drought and precipitation data. Sec. 12512 also requires a review of the data utilized by the Drought Monitor followed by utilization of additional data identified by the review.
As you continue working on farm bill implementation, I request that you prioritize the aforementioned provisions in the applicable mission area, especially as we approach the summer months when accuracy of the Drought Monitor will be critical for producers.
In addition, I request that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) coordinate with FSA and RMA when establishing annual carrying capacities on USFS grazing lands to ensure that carrying capacities are consistent and commensurate with grazing loss assistance offered by FSA and RMA. This would eliminate situations in the past when FSA and RMA determined that drought conditions were not severe enough to trigger livestock grazing loss assistance, yet the USFS reduced carrying capacities in the same area on its grazing lands.
I appreciate your commitment to the timely implementation of the 2018 farm bill. Thank you for your attention to these requests. Please feel free to contact me or my staff if we can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
###