Washington, DC
January 7, 2003

Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) reintroduced to Congress Tuesday the Companion Disaster Assistance Program Act. If adopted, the legislation would provide more equitable aid for crop insurance participants who have been hurt by substantial losses from severe drought and floods.

National Corn Growers Association's President Fred Yoder met with Graves and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday to discuss NCGA's concerns regarding disaster assistance and crop insurance. "NCGA applauds Rep. Graves for stepping forward and reintroducing legislation that provides disaster aid to row crop producers without undermining our progress with the federal crop insurance program," Yoder said.

If adopted, the legislation would provide more equitable aid for crop insurance participants who have been hurt by substantial losses from severe drought and floods. The new legislation would complement the crop insurance program by covering a portion of the uninsurable deductible rather than duplicating the insurance coverage under traditional disaster assistance. Preliminary scoring from the Congressional Budget Office puts the cost of the disaster assistance programs at $2.9 billion.

"We cannot afford to jeopardize the future of the crop insurance program and the improvements we need to make to it," Yoder added. "NCGA feels this is a reasonable compromise for Congress to consider given the flat levels of discretionary spending available."

The National Corn Growers Association mission is to create and increase opportunities for corn growers in a changing world and to enhance corn's profitability and usage. NCGA represents more than 32,000 members, 25 affiliated state corn grower organizations and hundreds of thousands of growers who contribute to state checkoff programs. "The Mission of the NCGA staff is to execute programs under the direction of the NCGA Corn Board to provide professional, quality service to our state checkoff and association members."