CHEYENNE, Wyo.– On April 6th, 2020, U.S. Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, both R-Wyo., joined a bipartisan letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to urge the Administration to ensure the continuity of the country’s food supply and to support rural areas during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by providing needed relief to farmers.
Last week Perdue wrote in an op-ed that the supply chain in the United States is “strong and safe.”
Perdue went on to say that the bare store shelves across our country are a demand issue, not a supply issue.
In the letter to Perdue, the Senators call on the Administration to make temporary flexibilities on Farm Service Agency (FSA) loans permanent for the duration of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
“We write to ask that you take action to ensure the continuity of our country’s food supply and support rural areas during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by providing needed relief to farmers—including by ensuring that the temporary flexibilities on farm loans recently announced by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) are made permanent for the duration of the pandemic and subsequent economic recovery, and also by ensuring adequate and equitable access to credit during this period of market uncertainty,” the senators wrote.
“To provide additional support for those whose operations are being affected by the coronavirus, we urge you to consider making emergency measures such as deadline extensions, loan payment deferrals, payment forbearance, and a full suspension of all current and pending foreclosure actions effective for the duration of the pandemic and subsequent economic recovery,” the senators continued.
The letter, led by U.S. Senators John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was also signed by U.S. Senators Tina Smith, D-Minn., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Bob Casey, D-Pa., John Thune, R-S.D., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Steve Daines, R-Mont., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., John Boozman, R-Ark., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Angus King, I-Maine, Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Bill Cassidy, R-La., Mark Warner, D-Va., Todd Young, R-Ind., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Patty Murray, D-Wash., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Doug Jones, D-Ala., Tom Carper, D-Del., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Jon Tester, D-Mont., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
“Such measures are critical to avoiding disruption in the country’s food supply chain.”
Full text of the letter can be found here.
The Wyoming Department of Health provides COVID-19 case, variant, death, testing, hospital and vaccine data online. The department also shares information about how the data can be interpreted. COVID-19 safety recommendations are available from the CDC.
