An amendment to a federal bill was taken out that would’ve helped Iowans that were impacted by the derecho storm and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District Representative Randy Feenstra says his amendment would have designated federal funds to help Iowans that suffered crop loss or damages and small business owners impacted by the pandemic. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio 43-percent of Iowa’s corn and soybean crops were destroyed by the derecho, along with billions of dollars of damages to grain storage bins. He points out how he garnered bipartisan support for the amendment in the  House Agriculture Committee.

“This is a good amendment. This will help my state (because) my state had wildfires. Because this is a part of the (LIP Livestock) Indemnity (Program) Fund from the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) that helps out people with drought, or wildfires, or whatever it might be. They said, ‘this is the one thing that this bill could’ve done to help our producers.’” 

Feenstra notes how the overall process went when the bill came to the House floor for a vote.

“There were zero amendments that were taken. So the Republicans had 200 and some amendments and none of them were taken. Mine was the only one that was taken all the way to (the House) Rules (Committee), but then even (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi said, ‘No, we’re not going to have any amendments, zero.’ And so they stripped it out on the floor, which was again very disappointing.”

Feenstra is hopeful to work with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to find another way to allocate relief funds for ag producers that were impacted by the derecho.