Disaster Spending Bill Clears Senate; Jeffords and Leahy Help Improve Administration’s Initial Proposal

March 27, 1998

The U.S. Senate Thursday night completed action on a comprehensive disaster relief bill that includes millions of dollars more in federal assistance for ice storm-ravaged Vermont and the Northeast than the Clinton Administration had originally proposed. Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords worked to improve the Administration’s disaster relief request for Vermont.

Leahy and Jeffords helped make the following changes to the disaster relief package:

A Leahy amendment supported by Jeffords that added $4.5 million to assist maple-sugarers in replacing taps and tubing destroyed by the storm. Leahy offered the amendment during Senate Appropriations Committee consideration of the disaster spending bill.

An amendment cosponsored by Jeffords and Leahy which provides $10 million for dairy farmers to reimburse them for milk they had to discard during the storm as well as providing reimbursement at $4 per hundred weight for long-term production losses caused by the storm. The Administration’s initial request provided assistance only for dumped milk.

An amendment cosponsored by Leahy and Jeffords which provides $260 million in emergency Community Development Block Grant funding to helps states recover from the ice storm and other natural disasters. This funding could be used to help utility companies -- which in Vermont were hit with more than $9 million in service reparation costs -- recover from the storm without the need for rate increases.

Jeffords and Leahy also successfully pushed for $8.7 million for the federal Tree Assistance Program, which helps in the replanting of maple or orchard trees. The House of Representatives is scheduled to take up its version of the legislation next week.