By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A Kansas Congressman says he appreciates President Donald Trump’s efforts to soften the economic blow of his trade dispute with China, but adds farmers want more trade, not handouts.

Congressman Roger Marshall says he has told the White House that farmers simply want more opportunities to sell agricultural products abroad.

“We keep emphasizing what we want is open trade markets, not a handout, and I think the White House has received that loud and clear,” Marshall tells KFEQ Farm Director Melissa Gregory. “But, on the other hand, farm agricultural bankruptcies are up, record highs unfortunately across Kansas. Mental health issues, suicides are up as well. People are way behind on their loans. So, maybe this mitigation money will help some farmers stay afloat for another three to six months.”

It is not a long-term solution, though, according to Marshall. He says other trade opportunities need to be seized.

Marshall says a good start would be for Congress to vote on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement which would replace NAFTA.

Marshall, a Republican, accuses Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of refusing to bring USMCA to the floor for a vote, because she doesn’t want President Trump to win a victory.

“So, it’s very frustrating to me. I sure cannot control President Xi and the Chinese, but we could take USMCA off the uncertainty pile and move it over to the certainty,” according to Marshall. “I just want to emphasize that we trade four times more of our products with Mexico and Canada than we do with China. So, we need to get USMCA done yesterday.”

Marshall says expanded trade is vital to the agricultural economy. He says that is a message he has delivered to the president.

“And I pressed upon him just as hard as I could that Mr. President, we need to get USMCA done,” Marshall says. “We need to get China done, let alone the European Union and the Japanese markets. So, I think the upside is incredibly up, but it’s also hard times.”

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves applauds passage of a $19.1 billion federal disaster aid package, which contains money to offset losses from this year’s floods.

“This is going to go a long way toward helping us in terms of damage control for levee systems, roads systems, public assistance, everything that goes along with that,” Graves tells St. Joseph Post. “One of the things we did in there too was, grain crops that are stored have never been covered before and this is something that we were able to change.”

Slightly more than $3 billion has been allocated to offset agricultural losses due to floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Money will be provided to compensate for the loss of stored grain, which Graves says was added specifically for northwest Missouri, which saw floodwaters surround grain bins, break them open, causing them to spill their contents. Graves says floodwaters along the Missouri River rose so fast farmers didn’t have enough time to move grain to higher ground.

The federal disaster relief package also includes $435 million to help states and local partners restore watersheds.

Nearly $2.5 billion has been allocated to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair damage to Corps projects. An additional $740 million has been given to the Corps to accelerate construction of projects to reduce the risk from future floods and hurricanes; $35 million has been set aside to study ways to reduce the risk of future floods and hurricanes. Also included in the package is $1.65 billion to reimburse states for the damage done by natural disasters to federal highways.

Graves says he’s satisfied with the amount appropriated to offset flood losses.

“I am at this point. The problem is we don’t know what’s coming down the road. We don’t know how much worse it’s going to get,” Graves says. “The situation is if we don’t have those levee breaches fixed, then that leaves us vulnerable to the river coming up again and restarting this process all over again.”

Partisan bickering delayed passage of the disaster relief package. President Donald Trump and many Republicans in the House objected to the $1.4 billion allocated to aid Puerto Rico in its ongoing efforts to recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria. The president accused the U.S. territory of not efficiently using existing disaster relief funds. Democrats countered that the president downplayed the devastation left in Maria’s wake.

Some conservative Republicans in the House held out for money to extend the wall along the southern border of the country, but a provision in the bill effectively blocks any defense funding for being used for border wall construction.

Graves says a deal should have been reached earlier.

“It is a frustration, because you have people out there their lives and their livelihoods and their businesses and everything are hanging in the balance, but the good news is we were able to get it done.”

The bill has been sent to President Trump for his signature. He is expected to sign it.

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Water releases from Gavins Point Dam will remain at 75,000 cubic feet per second for some time, perhaps for the remainder of the year.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had ratcheted up releases from the dam upstream on the Missouri River, bringing them to 70,000, until Saturday, when the Corps raised releases to their present 75,000 cfs.

Missouri River Basin Water Management Chief John Remus with the Corps says the increase is needed to handle a huge influx of water.

“The runoff forecast is now, for 2019, is 50 million acre-feet, which if realized will be the second highest runoff on record, over 121 years; second only to 2011,” Remus tells a conference call held by the Corps.

That year, runoff totaled nearly 62 million acre-feet.

Gavins Point is the lowest of the six upstream Missouri River dams used by the Corps of Engineers to regulate flows into the Missouri River.

Heavy rains, plus increased mountain snowpack melt have filled the upstream Missouri River reservoirs.

Remus says the upper Missouri River Basin has seen 30 million acre-feet of runoff so far this year, with another 20 million expected soon.

“What that means, long-term, is that the 75,000 cfs is going to be maintained, probably, well into the fall of not all the way through till we start ratcheting down for the winter flows,” according to Remus.

If the forecast holds, it will be the second-highest water releases from Gavins Point, behind only 2011, when the Corps increase releases to 160,000 cubic feet per second during the height of the flood. A normal flow from Gavins Point this time of year is 30,000. In 1997, the Corps raised releases from Gavins Point to 70,000 cfs, previously second highest.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Missouri lawmakers appropriated eight million dollars to help in flood recovery this year.

The money could come in handy now that Congress has approved $19.1 billion in disaster relief assistance. The United States House gave overwhelming approval to the bill reshaped by the Senate. The bill now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.

State Sen. Dan Hegeman of Cosby, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says the $8 million state appropriation can be used as a match to draw down federal disaster relief aid.

“Hopefully, we will use that to match the federal dollars that come down from FEMA, which is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and this will help with the local match to those FEMA dollars,” Hegeman tells St. Joseph Post.

Hegeman adds the General Assembly also added more money in the Department of Transportation budget to help repair roads and bridges damaged by floodwaters.

MoDOT reports as many as 400 roads have been closed because of flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

The federal disaster package will provide aid to offset the cost of recovery for a wide variety of disasters throughout the country, including wildfires in California and hurricanes in the southeastern portion of the United States. Assistance for flood victims was added after the mid-March floods devastated a wide swath of the Midwest, flooding which has been compounded by abnormally heavy rain since.

The relief package includes $1.4 billion to help Puerto Rico with ongoing recovery efforts since Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the U.S. territory. A partisan skirmish over the additional aid to Puerto Rico help up passage of the bill.

Hegeman says this year will be hard for many living along the Missouri River, especially the farmers who grow crops in the fertile Missouri River bottoms.

“Oh, it’s a struggle, it’s a struggle this year for those who farm in the bottoms along the Missouri River,” Hegeman says. “There is likely a potential for not seeing much of an income for three years. I don’t know how many businesses can manage through something like that. It’s going to be tough.”

Hegeman says a lot of work is ahead for the Missouri Department of Transportation in wake of this year’s flooding. He says a priority of the state is to reopen the two routes from northwest Missouri into southeast Nebraska.

“On one of the roads, I think (U.S.) 159, we have a bridge that twisted and will have to be replaced. It will be likely, at the quickest, a year before we will be able to get that bridge replaced,” Hegeman says. “There are other routes to be able to open up the Rulo bridge so we can at least have a circuitous route to get there, but at least get that bridge opened up.”

Both the Rulo bridge and the Brownville bridge held up under Missouri River flooding. The roads leading to the bridges did not. MoDOT has issued contracts to repair U.S. 159 leading to the Rulo bridge and to repair U.S. 136 leading to the Brownville bridge to reopen vital avenues between Missouri and Nebraska. Highway 2, just across the state line in Iowa which leads to Nebraska City, had been reopened until renewed flooding forced the Iowa Department of Transportation to close it and Interstate 29 again.

 

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Water being held back by a severely eroded watershed dam south of Sabetha is slowly being released to lessen any possible flooding should the dam fail.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture Division of Water Resources reports a contractor has begun to lower water levels incrementally to reduce the risk of downstream flooding. Division officials say once the reservoir is lowered, a plan will be developed to repair the dam.

The prospect of the dam’s failure sparked some panic in portions of northeast Kansas. Initial reports claimed the dam’s failure was imminent. The Division of Water Resources refuted that report, issuing a statement saying floodwaters had seriously eroded the back side of the dam, but that its failure was not imminent.

The dam has been monitored closely by the division since last Tuesday. A safety team was sent to the site to inspect the damage.

County officials have closed two nearby roads, County Road 220 and County Road 250, as a precautionary measure.

A division official says he doesn’t believe that anybody is in danger due to the deteriorating condition of the dam.

The Kansas Division of Water Resources is in communication with the Kansas Division of Emergency Management.

State officials also greatly downplay initial reports that failure of the dam could overrun U.S. Highway 36 in northeastern Kansas or threaten the Kickapoo Indian Reservation and the Golden Eagle Casino, stating its failure would likely only flood surrounding agricultural land.

Still, the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for south of Sabetha down the Delaware River which could affect east-central Nemaha County, southwestern Brown County, and northeastern Jackson County.