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Vermont lawmaker outlines bill to create permanent farm, forestry disaster fund
Summary
Rep. Molly Burke introduced H.229 to create a Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund to provide rapid grants for weather-related uninsured losses; committee members discussed funding requests and application timelines but recorded no formal vote.
Representative Molly Burke of Brattleboro introduced H.229 on the House Agriculture Committee agenda, saying the bill would establish a Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund to provide financial assistance to farms and forestry operations that experience qualifying losses due to weather conditions.
Burke said the proposal grew from farmer-organized meetings after back-to-back rounds of severe flooding in 2023 and 2024. "Immediate is a really important word here," Burke said, adding that many farms cannot afford to weather repeated extreme events. She said federal insurance and disaster programs are "woefully insufficient" for many small and diversified operations and arrive too slowly when they do.
The bill sets up a special fund, to be administered by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, and awards grants…
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