Photo by Lindy Savelle
By Clint Thompson
Disaster relief assistance took too long for Southeast growers impacted by Hurricane Michael in 2018. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) ensured his farmers that history would not repeat itself following Hurricane Helene, which moved through the region on Sept. 26-27.
Ossoff’s bipartisan push helped spur the Senate to pass legislation last weekend that included $21 billion agricultural disaster funding. President Biden signed the American Relief Act, 2025 into law on Saturday, which provides disaster relief appropriations. It will help Southeast specialty crop producers that were impacted multiple hurricanes this year, including Helene which devastated North Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
“I want to compare this with the abysmal performance of the Congress after Hurricane Michael which similarly imposed devastating damage on Georgia agriculture. After Hurricane Michael, it took about eight months for Congress to appropriate disaster assistance,” Ossoff said. “The commitment that I made to Georgia farmers who still bitterly remember that delay and how politics and incompetence delayed that funding; the commitment that I made to them was that I would not let that happen. We would move quickly, and we would move competently and that we move through anybody or anything in our way and bring republicans and democrats together to get this done by the end of the year.
“This time it took less than 90 days for us to appropriate this agricultural disaster assistance.”
GFVGA Response
Chris Butts, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (GFVGA), stressed the need for his growers to get this win amid the natural disasters and production challenges they have had to overcome in recent years.
“Thank goodness for the experienced leadership that we have up in D.C. representing Georgia and the fact that they have been through this before with Austin Scott and Sanford Bishop. Sen. Ossoff was there, too, fighting for disaster funding,” Butts said. “As you ride around those communities, the damages are still so evident and so fresh. We’ve got to do something to help those guys.
“Thankfully, we’re able to do it before the end of the year so we can move forward in getting that money to those growers as soon as possible in the first quarter of 2025. Thankfully, we’re not talking about what should have happened. All’s well that ends well with this one.”