Blumenthal, Booker, Klobuchar & Colleagues Urge Secretary Rollins to Ensure Disaster Aid Reaches Small Farmers

[HARTFORD, CT] – Today, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and their colleagues wrote a letter calling on USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to ensure that the $21 billion in emergency federal aid secured by Congress last December reaches small farmers.

“Many small farms grow multiple crops--including fruit and vegetable varieties that do not have crop-specific insurance options--making it more difficult to purchase crop insurance and subsequently, more difficult to collect and report loss data for emergency programs if they are uninsured. We have also heard from our producers that in previous emergency funding assistance programs provided by USDA, applications were burdensome and difficult to navigate,” the senators wrote.

The senators stressed the importance of USDA helping farmers apply for disaster assistance, as Congress directed.

“We urge you to robustly invest in this technical assistance such that every interested farmer is able to access emergency support. We request that you provide us with the status of how technical assistance will be delivered amidst this period of reduced staffing at USDA,” the senators continued.

“It will likely take longer for small farmers to apply and for USDA to process their claims, given the natural complexity of multi-crop farms, the fact that small farms are more likely to be uninsured, and the fact that farmers with smaller operations are stretched thin already. We request that you ensure that there is still funding available to compensate these farmers, if other payments are issued faster,” the senators continued.

The senators also requested that some of the emergency funds be used to assist affected farmers with purchasing crop insurance to protect them in future years, that the USDA compensate uninsured farmers based on farm-specific revenue losses, and that the agency publish detailed data of how the disaster aid was distributed.

The senators requested an update on the status of these requests by March 31, 2025.

The letter is cosigned by U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Tina Smith (D-MN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Alex Padilla (D-CA).

Blumenthal is committed to advocating for small farms in Connecticut, especially those affected by extreme weather events like unprecedented flooding in 2023 and the hailstorms in 2024. In 2024, in addition to the $21 billion in emergency aid, Blumenthal supported the passage of the Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant Program, which aims to provide $220 million specifically for small and medium-sized farmers impacted by severe weather events in New England, Alaska, and Hawaii. In 2024, Blumenthal introduced the Save Our Small (SOS) Farms Act of 2024, legislation to improve access to disaster assistance programs and crop insurance for small sized farms.

The full text of the letter is available here and below.

March 10, 2025

The Honorable Brooke Rollins

Secretary

U.S. Department of Agriculture

1400 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington, D.C. 20250

Dear Secretary Rollins:

We thank you for expressing a heartfelt commitment to supporting small farmers in your confirmation hearing. As you know, small farm operators in this country are struggling. Despite the fact that these farmers need assistance, our crop insurance and disaster programs too often leave them behind, due to administrative burdens or exclusionary program designs. In December of 2024, Congress delivered $21 billion in emergency federal aid to farmers impacted by disasters. We ask that the USDA administer this funding in a timely and minimally-burdensome way to small farms.

Many small farms grow multiple crops--including fruit and vegetable varieties that do not have crop-specific insurance options--making it more difficult to purchase crop insurance and subsequently, more difficult to collect and report loss data for emergency programs if they are uninsured. We have also heard from our producers, that in previous emergency funding assistance programs provided by USDA, applications were burdensome and difficult to navigate. For this reason, Congress directed USDA to “offer individualized technical assistance to interested non-insured producers to help them apply for assistance” when implementing the disaster assistance. We are very concerned about USDA’s ability to deliver this technical assistance, given the recent layoffs of USDA staff that focus on helping farmers. We urge you to robustly invest in this technical assistance such that every interested farmer is able to access emergency support. We request that you provide us with the status of how technical assistance will be delivered amidst this period of reduced staffing at USDA.

It will likely take longer for small farmers to apply and for USDA to process their claims, given the natural complexity of multi-crop farms, the fact that small farms are more likely to be uninsured, and the fact that farmers with smaller operations are stretched thin already. We request that you ensure that there is still funding available to compensate these farmers, if other payments are issued faster.

Further, we have heard from farmers that they experienced difficulty purchasing crop insurance to fulfill the requirement of accepting the ad hoc disaster aid. Farmers reported that their only option was to purchase Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, which is not adequately protective and leaves them vulnerable for future disasters. This is again due to the fact that purchasing crop insurance requires specialized assistance for multi-crop farms. We request that you use some of the emergency funding to partner with third-party organizations that can assist farmers who receive disaster assistance to purchase crop insurance.

Additionally, we know that small farmers often sell higher-value products directly to consumers, such as through farmer’s markets. For this reason, we ask that the USDA use its discretion to compensate uninsured farmers based on farm-specific revenue losses, as opposed to national or area-wide average revenue or crop losses, which would ensure they get support commensurate with their lost income.

Lastly, we request that you publish detailed data of how the disaster aid is distributed, including producer characteristics such as farm size, type of commodity, producer state, and size of payments. This will help Congress understand whether this funding was used efficiently and effectively for rural America.

Thank you for working to make sure small producers have fair access to this support from Congress. Please update us on the status of these requests by March 31, 2025.

Sincerely, 

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