FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2009

Contact:
Lincoln, Katie Laning, 202-224-4843
Pryor, Michael Teague, 501-324-6336
Berry, Angela Guyadeen, 202-226-7625
Snyder, Betsy Barrett, 202-225-2506
Boozman, Sara Lasure, 202-225-4301
Ross, Brad Howard, 202-225-3772

Arkansas Congressional Delegation Members Call on Ag Secretary for Disaster Designation for Rain-soaked Arkansas

Washington – U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and Representatives Marion Berry (AR-01), Vic Snyder (AR-02), John Boozman (AR-03), and Mike Ross (AR-04) today called on the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to designate 26 Arkansas counties a “Secretarial Disaster” after months of record rain and extensive flooding have devastated crops, placing the livelihoods of Arkansas’s farmers and ranchers at risk.  The designation would allow farmers and ranchers to be eligible for emergency loans.   

In a letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack, the Arkansas officials wrote in support of Governor Beebe’s request for a Secretarial Disaster Designation for those counties that have suffered agricultural devastation due to excessive rainfall and extensive flooding from June 1, 2009, and continuing.

“This will allow the Farm Services Agency to make emergency loans available to the eligible farmers and ranchers whose lives and livelihoods were affected by this natural disaster,” the delegation members wrote. 

The following is a list of the 26 Arkansas counties Governor Beebe submitted for Secretarial Disaster Designation:

Ashley         Desha                Lafayette     Perry        St. Francis
Bradley        Faulkner             Lincoln         Phillips      Union
Calhoun       Independence    Little River    Poinsett    White
Chicot         Jackson              Miller             Pope        Woodruff    
Conway     Jefferson            Monroe         Prairie      Yell
Cross                                           
                                          

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