Senate Republicans and Democrats finally came together on an agreement regarding a $19.1 billion disaster aid package. An Agri-Pulse report says the aid was expanded to include payments to producers who can’t plant a crop this year. It also will include farmers whose stored commodities were damaged by flooding. Producers who lost crops to hurricanes and wildfires last year will also qualify for payments.

The combination of disaster payments and crop insurance benefits or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program would be limited to 90 percent of a farmer’s loss. Disaster payments to farmers who don’t buy crop insurance will be limited to 70 percent of their loss. The disaster aid package also includes a provision making industrial hemp eligible for whole-farm insurance policies starting next year. The Senate approved the bill 85-8 on Thursday, just before the Memorial Day recess.

Passing the bill had been delayed months because of a battle between President Trump and Democrats over disaster funding for Puerto Rico. The battle also involved funding the president wanted for the southern border. Those funds were left out of the final bill. Most of the House had already left for the holiday weekend before the Senate passed the bill.

Thursday’s disaster aid package rollout was good news for agriculture but many of the details are still uncertain. The total aid amount could come in at $16 billion and will cover a wider range of crops than last year’s aid to farmers. However, the administration didn’t disclose some key details like just how much money individual farmers and ranchers will get in cash.

Politico says $14.5 billion is being earmarked for direct payments to producers. USDA developed a new and more complex formula for calculating producers’ compensation to remove incentives for planting certain crops. Instead of being tied to what farmers actually grew in 2019, they’ll be computed on a county-by-county basis. Officials say they’ve estimated the amount of damage inflicted on producers by trade disputes and will then multiply that by the acreage planted in the area. Farmers who don’t plant a crop this year won’t be eligible for cash assistance.

This will likely complicate things for Midwest producers who’ve been battling rain this spring while trying to plant. The USDA’s trade aid package could encourage them to try to plant anyway. The president says the aid would be paid for by the tariffs that China is paying into the U.S. Treasury. That’s not the case. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the USDA will tap into the Commodity Credit Corporation, which has broad authority to stabilize the farm economy.

Representatives Collin C. Peterson and Dusty Johnson and the co-chairs of the Congressional Biofuels Caucus introduced the Renewable Fuel Standard Integrity Act of 2019 which establishes an annual June 1st deadline for refineries to submit small refinery exemption petitions from their RFS blending obligations each year and increases transparency in the process.

“It is clear to me that EPA is abusing its authority by recklessly handing out small refinery waivers and refusing to account for them,” said Peterson. “This is hurting farmers and agriculture communities at the worst time. This bill ends the gamesmanship in the waiver process and increases transparency along the way.”

Since 2018, EPA granted 54 waivers to refineries for the 2016 and 2017 RFS compliance years totaling 2.61 billion ethanol-equivalent gallons being taken out of the market place. By law, the RFS requires that the EPA make adjustments when determining future biofuels targets to account for waivers to ensure that the overall biofuels targets are not reduced by waivers.

By setting a June 1st petition submission deadline each year, the EPA will have time to account for renewable fuel gallons stripped from the market due to these waivers. The bill also increases transparency in the process by making information with respect to a petition subject to public disclosure.

The Trump administration announced a new trade relief package in response to the U.S. trade dispute with China. USDA’s trade retaliation relief program includes direct payments to qualifying producers. The National Pork Producers Council says the program will include pork surplus purchases for the benefit of low-income families and others in need. They’re also happy it will include additional funding to develop new export opportunities.

The American Soybean Association says it welcomes news of the aid package. “We recognize that these funds will help offset the persisting damage from tariffs, as well as enable new market development,” says ASA President Davie Stephens. However, Stephens emphasized that the soybean industry needs more access to trade. The National Farmers Union is appreciative of the aid package and supports efforts to address China’s unfair practices.

“While the trade aid package is an improvement over last year’s Market Facilitation Program, by definition it fails to provide predictable, consistent, and adequate relief across American agriculture,” says NFU President Roger Johnson. House Ag Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee Chair Jim Costa of California called the package a “rushed and poorly-planned bailout.” Costa says producers of every commodity have been asking for more access to foreign markets, not aid funds.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had kind words for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi after they met this week to discuss the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. Lighthizer attended a closed-door lunch with Republican Senators earlier this week, saying he was optimistic about the prospects of getting the USMCA passed.

Lighthizer says the House Speaker is focusing on the deal. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst told Politico that Rep. Lighthizer was “very complimentary of Speaker Pelosi, I’ll be honest.” Senate GOP members seemed more optimistic about the future of the deal, which Politico says was on “life-support” just weeks ago.

One sign that Pelosi is working in good faith on the deal is the formation of four working groups to address Democratic concerns. Those concerns included improvements in the areas of labor, environment, and medicines. The fourth group will work on miscellaneous issues that Democrats want to get resolved. There’s no timeline yet as to when the administration will formally submit the text of the agreement to Congress.