HENDRY COUNTY, Fla. — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins signed a $675.9 million block grant agreement with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on Monday in Hendry County.
Rollins said the USDA-FDACS agreement aims to help farmers to recover from Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton and cover the cost of infrastructure and citrus and timber losses.
“America’s farmers and ranchers across the Southeast and in Florida have been hit hard,” Rollins said during her visit to CPI Planting.
The funding comes from the $30 billion disaster assistance relief effort authorized by the American Relief Act.
Wilton Simpson, Florida’s agriculture commissioner, said the state’s farmers, ranchers, and growers have endured back-to-back devastating hurricane seasons.
“This funding is a major victory that will help them rebuild, recover, and continue feeding our state and nation,” Simpson said.
The industry was also feeling the impact of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s ongoing push for deportations of undocumented migrants.
President Donald Trump’s recent promise to help farmers: “We are going to issue a form of a card or document and the farmers are going to be responsible for these people, they are not going to have citizens yet, but they will be working, they’ll be paying taxes.
Rollins said there won’t be any amnesty for undocumented migrants in the U.S.
“I think that’s very, very important,” Rollins said earlier this month. “We must be strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportation so as not to compromise our food supply.”
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