05/02/05 Coordinating drought response

While Congress has a lot of high profile matters to deal with this year, one it may be forced to consider if not now, very soon, is emergency drought relief for much of the western U.S. WYDEN: We're dealing of course with a host of issues in Washington but I think given the projections in terms of the West this year and the prospect of widespread dry conditions, that ought to give us a real opportunity to get a leg up in terms of getting it passed. What U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon is referring to is a measure he and fellow Oregonian Gordon Smith introduced. The National Drought Preparedness Act would authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency to serve as the lead agency to coordinate drought preparedness and response efforts. Wyden says this should cut down on the major point of contention for Northwest growers and ranchers & not knowing where to go in the federal government to get help in drought preparedness, if not drought relief. WYDEN: There was a confusing alphabet soup of government agencies that are suppose to help folks in drought but they're difficult to find and access quickly. In addition, these agencies have struggled with unlimited resources and a lack of any sort of coordinate focus to help the rural communities through hard times and dry years. The Act will help develop a National Drought Policy Action Plan that outlines the roles of each agency in the event of a potential drought emergency, study and outline commonly defined triggers for drought response, and set up a governing board, the National Drought Board, serving under F.E.M.A. WYDEN: Instead of the federal agencies each taking their own approach to the drought, the Act will improve the Federal Government's ability to respond to droughts by creating a fourteen person group that's going to bring a coordinated effort. And when Wyden means coordinated, he means all the stakeholders will have a say in developing drought preparedness and response efforts, as well as benefit from such plans. WYDEN: This is designed to try to get as much direct financial assistance to the farmers, and the watershed groups, and the states, and tribes, and local governments as we can as they work to try to put together their plans for dealing with drought to have cost sharing between the federal government and local governmental bodies to mitigate the risks and to address some of the technology issues so as to do a better job of conserving water and innovated approaches to water supply.