WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and U.S. Representatives John Larson (D-Conn.-01), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.-02), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.-03), Jim Himes (D-Conn.-04),and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.-05) today joined 22 members of Congress from New England and Hawaii in issuing the following bicameral statement in response to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins illegally restricting relief funding to small and mid-sized family farms in New England, Alaska, and Hawaii:

“On behalf of our States and small farmers, we oppose the Department of Agriculture’s decision to violate Congressional intent, and the statutory purpose of the small states block grant, known as the Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant program. This block grant was created specifically to bridge the gap between traditional disaster relief programs and uncovered losses experienced by small farmers who cannot access traditional crop insurance. 

“USDA has dragged its feet for months on implementing this simple program, adding barrier after barrier to our States, and has now set an arbitrary deadline in a clear attempt to rush States into making a decision without sufficient information. USDA is demanding States either accept traditional disaster relief, which has failed most of our small farmers for years, or gamble on an unknown amount of repayment with little to no guidance from USDA. Once again, this choice would leave so many small farms to fend for themselves after a disaster.

“The Secretary of Agriculture must execute the law as written to make these farmers whole. Our farmers know what they need best, and they have been left behind by traditional disaster relief before. This grant was created to address those shortcomings. Small farmers in our States deserve respect and fair treatment, not another bait and switch from Washington bureaucrats.”

U.S. Representatives Richie Neal (D-Mass.-01), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.-02), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.-03), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.-04), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.-05), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.-06), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.-07), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.-08), Bill Keating (D-Mass.-09), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Jared Golden (D-Maine-02), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.-01), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.-02), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.-01), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.-02), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Ed Case (D-Hawaii-01), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii-02), as well as U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also joined the statement.