Shaheen Highlights New Hampshire Disaster Funding Needs and Urges FEMA, Department of Agriculture to Distribute Funds to Granite Staters

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, highlighted New Hampshire’s disaster funding needs at a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. Specifically, Shaheen emphasized the plight of Granite State farmers who lost as much as 80 to 100 percent of their crops in 2023 due to an extreme freeze and late frost, and who are struggling because they do not get support from federal crop insurance programs. Shaheen also called attention to the many small New Hampshire communities awaiting reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the wake of several highly damaging storms and secured a commitment from Administrator Criswell to help solve any holdups in reimbursements. You can watch Shaheen’s full remarks during the hearing here.

During her opening remarks, Senator Shaheen said: “We have fruit growers in New Hampshire who lost 80 to 100 percent of their crops in 2023 because of the freeze and late frost that really devastated so many of our growers. Because we have small farms, and about 90 percent of our growers don’t participate in federal crop insurance programs because the crop insurance programs have not really been designed to help farms like we have in New Hampshire.”

Shaheen separately went on to say to the FEMA Administrator: “I’m concerned about the length of time that so many of our small communities are waiting to be reimbursed. We have communities in New Hampshire going from the Canadian border in the north to the Massachusetts border in the south—every place from Pittsburgh to Acworth—that have submitted their paperwork but have not yet received reimbursements. These are small communities that have been hit hard, don’t have the capacity to cover rebuilding costs and have been waiting for about two years.”

Shaheen has spearheaded efforts to support Granite Staters in the wake of disasters. Last year, Shaheen sent a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell in support of New Hampshire communities following severe flooding and wind damage in December 2023. That request was granted in February of this year. Shaheen has consistently sent additional letters in support of New Hampshire disaster declaration requests submitted by the state. Recently, Shaheen visited Coast Guard Station Portsmouth Harbor to discuss facility damages resulting from storms in January of this year. Shaheen has also toured three sites along Ocean Boulevard (Route 1A) to view flooding damage to businesses, homes and infrastructure from the same catastrophic storm. 

Shaheen has long fought to support farmers in New Hampshire. Earlier this year, she joined a letter to Senate leadership calling for Congress to provide needed disaster relief through specific agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and most recently joined a bicameral letter  a to House and Senate leadership calling for Congress to provide disaster relief for farmers. Last year, Shaheen took to the floor to urge Congress to provide disaster assistance for Granite State farmers who were impacted by a late-season frost that severely impacted orchards, which was declared a disaster by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Shaheen also visited Apple Hill Farm in Concord, where she met with farmers from across the state and discussed the impact of unpredictable weather, specifically late-season frosts, on Northeast growers. In response to proposed changes to apple crop insurance by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Risk Management Agency (RMA) that would have been harmful to growers in New England, Senator Shaheen sent a bicameral letter last year requesting the agency to take into consideration the concerns of New England growers. As a result, regional apple growers are now engaged in conversations with RMA and are forming a working group made up of New England stakeholders to help inform better policymaking. Shaheen has since sent a follow-up letter to urge USDA to continue these efforts and secured related language in the bipartisan Fiscal Year 25 government funding bills passed by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee in July. Shaheen also recently introduced legislation that would reform the federal government’s crop insurance program.

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