BY Laura Layden
Florida's citrus growers (click here) are still waiting for federal aid more than six months after Hurricane Irma devastated the state's orange crop.
Growers are frustrated and so are Florida's two senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio, who fired off a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday asking for "an opportunity to directly discuss the implementation of the disaster assistance funding."
In February, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which included more than $2.3 billion in disaster assistance for citrus growers and other farmers affected by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the devastating wildfires last year.
The senators wrote they're "concerned that to date there has been no implementation guidance for producers."....
...The Sunshine State is the No. 2 producer of oranges in the world after Brazil. Citrus grown in Florida primarily ends up in juice form on kitchen tables throughout the world. Hurricane Irma in September 2017 affected the state's citrus crop in a big way. Before Irma the total impact of citrus on Florida’s economy was $8.6 billion a year. Wochit
The letter carried the signatures of six other U.S. senators: John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California....
f Louisiana, and Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California....
