Feenstra Sends Letter To USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack In Attempt To Help Bio-fuel Producers

Iowa’s 4th District Congressman,Randy Feenstra  led his colleagues in sending a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, urging the USDA to reopen the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) immediately to provide much-needed assistance to biofuels producers and farmers across the country. Feenstra was joined in the effort by representatives from various states.

The Biden administration froze CFAP back in January pending regulatory review. Now, it has been over two months since farmers that were most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic have had access to the timely relief they need. Thus far, biofuels producers have not been able to seek assistance through CFAP — but in December, Congress provided explicit authorization to allow biofuels to be included in the CFAP program.

An Excerpt from the letter said

“While the biofuels industry, along with our other impacted agricultural producers have waited for nearly two months for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to reopen, our local farmers continue to struggle. CFAP has played a critical role in keeping many of our local farming operations afloat prior to the Administration’s freeze on the Program that started in January. Assistance must resume and action must be taken immediately to provide parity, and much-needed assistance to the biofuels industry.”