Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff pressed both political parties on Wednesday on the urgency of passing agricultural disaster assistance for Georgia before the end of the year.
Ossoff testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations on the urgent need to support Georgia agriculture after the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene.
“The numbers are staggering, but this isn’t about numbers. It’s about families and rural communities, and without our help, the simple fact is that many of these family farms will fold, and they may fold soon. They’re staring at devastated farmland and orchards, they’re deep in the red, and they’re under immense stress. If they go under, our rural communities go under. The local tax base funding schools and infrastructure is destroyed. And the rural way of life in Georgia risks disappearing altogether,” Ossoff testified.
“We must refuse the temptation to delay or to get dragged into politics. We must swiftly pass disaster assistance by the end of the year. My constituents and Americans in every state hit by this terrible storm and hit by natural disasters for the last several years are counting on all of us,” he added.
In September, in the days after Hurricane Helene, Sen. Ossoff and Congressman Austin Scott (GA-08), alongside Georgia’s entire Congressional Delegation, led a bipartisan, bicameral group of 34 lawmakers from Southeastern states urging Congressional Leadership to ensure disaster relief resources are made available to agricultural producers following the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene.