The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers several permanently authorized programs to help producers recover from natural disasters. Most of these programs offer financial assistance to producers for a loss in the production of crops or livestock. In addition to the production assistance programs, USDA also has several permanent disaster assistance programs that help producers restore damaged crop and forest land following natural disasters. These programs offer financial and technical assistance to producers to repair, restore, and mitigate damage on private land. These emergency agricultural land assistance programs include the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), and the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. In addition to these programs, USDA also has flexibility in administering other programs that assist with the repair of damaged cropland in the event of an emergency. Both ECP and EFRP are administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). ECP assists landowners in restoring agricultural production damaged by natural disasters. Participants are paid a percentage of the cost to restore the land to a productive state. ECP is available only on private land, and eligibility is determined locally. EFRP was created to assist private forestland owners to address damage caused by a natural disaster on nonindustrial private forest land. The EWP program is administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The EWP program assists sponsors, landowners, and operators in implementing emergency recovery measures for runoff retardation and erosion prevention to relieve imminent hazards to life and property created by a natural disaster. In some cases this can include state and federal land. The EWP program includes two voluntary mitigation subprograms—EWP floodplain easements and EWP recovery buyouts. The EWP floodplain easement program pays for permanent easements on private land, removes all structures, and restores the floodplain to safeguard lives and property from future floods, drought, and the consequences of erosion. Under the EWP recovery buyout program, NRCS partners with local sponsors who purchase property and preserve flood prone land for restoration and open space purposes. Funding for emergency agricultural land assistance is provided through supplemental appropriations and varies greatly from year to year. Supplemental appropriations measures are commonly considered jointly with annual appropriations bills or continuing appropriations measures (referred to as continuing resolutions or CRs). The timing of annual appropriations bills and CRs may not coincide with natural disasters, thus leaving some programs without funding during times when the volume of requests for assistance is high. This funding method has led some to suggest that Congress authorize permanent mandatory funding similar to other agricultural disaster assistance programs that respond to crop and livestock production losses or provide consistent funding through annual appropriations. Restrictions placed on supplemental appropriations for disaster assistance can change the way the agricultural land assistance programs allocate funding, potentially assisting with fewer natural disasters. Language restricting funding to specific disaster events, years, or disaster declarations can provide congressional intent for program implementation. Also, since agricultural land assistance program funds are typically available until expended under the original terms of the appropriation, this restricting language can limit what areas may receive future assistance with any remaining funds. Additionally, emergency agricultural land assistance programs do not normally require a federal disaster declaration, such as those declared according to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act, 42 U.S.C. §§5121-5207). Therefore, any requirement of a Stafford Act declaration may become a limiting factor in the way agricultural land assistance programs work, potentially reducing the number of eligible natural disaster events. Congress may choose to review the use of federal land assistance programs for mitigation—steps taken to reduce risk before a natural disaster occurs. The two current mitigation options are the EWP floodplain easement program and EWP recovery buyouts. These programs protect and restore floodplain land that has a history of flooding. Some have questioned the use of federal restoration funds in areas with a high risk of damage from natural disasters, arguing that it encourages poor land use decisions. While the alternative of mitigation could reduce the future cost of federal assistance, the initial cost of a permanent easement, buyout, and restoration is sometimes viewed as too expensive.
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