U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will distribute $20 million to build temporary grain storage facilities in areas affected by last year’s tornadoes, including Western Kentucky. The announcement comes after the region reportedly lost millions of bushels of grain storage capacity in the storm, threatening this year’s harvest. McConnell’s office says Monday’s announcement will help reconnect local farmers to grain purchasers and reimburse those who have already constructed temporary facilities using their own resources.
According to McConnell’s office, the senator included a provision in last year’s government funding bill directing the USDA to fund temporary grain storage infrastructure in Western Kentucky. As a senior member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, McConnell also attended a committee hearing to question U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and seek confirmation that the USDA would distribute funding as soon as possible.
In a release, Senator McConnell said last year’s tornado outbreak was one of the worst disasters to ever hit Kentucky and its devastation continues to hamper our families and businesses. He added that includes Western Kentucky’s farmers who, after losing millions of bushels of grain storage capacity in the storm, feared they might be unable to complete this year’s harvest. McConnell said he knew that they couldn’t allow their hard work to go to waste or their farms to fail, so he leveraged his position as Senate Republican Leader to secure USDA funding for new temporary storage facilities and pushed Secretary Vilsack to release the federal funds as soon as possible. McConnell noted that he looks forward to watching this extra capacity come online quickly and remove another obstacle to Western Kentucky’s tornado recovery efforts.
Vilsick said Congress has provided USDA with important flexibility through the Commodity Credit Corporation, which gives them the tools to be nimble as they work to support the production and marketing of agricultural commodities and quickly respond to agricultural producers’ needs.
