Sep 10, 2021New COVID PPE funding falls short, says National Potato Council
On Sept. 9, the Biden Administration announced $700 million in new funding intended to support entities that purchased personal protective equipment and incurred vaccination costs and related expenses in combating COVID-19.
Of that total, $650 million in the Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant program is targeted for the agriculture industry.
National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles said the structure of the funding is set up in a way that will leave larger specialty crop growers, who have incurred significant expense, without relief.
“Over the past few months, the National Potato Council and our partners in the agriculture industry have given feedback to USDA on the need to support those who incurred COVID-19 PPE and vaccination costs in the heavily impacted specialty crop sector,” Quarles said through a statement. “Although we appreciate the intention of today’s announcement and the release of these funds, unfortunately, certain limitations in the structure of the program will cause it to fall short of providing the necessary relief that the Administration and Congress intended.
“COVID-19 made no distinction in its threat to farmworkers and other essential employees at small, medium or large farms. Each of those workers required gear and access to vaccines to keep them safe, and the entities who provided it to them should be eligible for support.”
Quarles noted the annual sales limitations are an area of note.
“This relief program draws a distinction when the virus did not. In particular, the ‘annual sales’ limitation makes a large number of financially stressed employers ineligible for relief for these essential and costly actions. Our advice to USDA has been to support the actions that kept farmworkers safe, regardless of the size of the entity providing them. The program announced today does not meet that equitable goal, but we intend to continue working with Congress and the Administration to achieve it in the future,” Quarles said.
