Florida Delegation Wants USDA Disaster Declaration for Counties Impacted by Weather

Most members of Floridas congressional delegation sent a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, backing requests made first at the end of December by then-Gov. Charlie Crist and later by Gov. Rick Scott to cover 36 of the states 67 counties under a disaster declaration due to the cold weather.

We hope you will expedite Floridas request for a disaster declaration so our agriculture community can begin the long road to recovery from the devastating weather conditions, wrote the delegation members. This past December was one of the coldest in Floridas history with consecutive days of sustained hours of temperatures below freezing.The extreme weather caused significant crop loss and damage across our state.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio signed the letter. So did the following U.S. representatives: Jeff Miller, Steve Southerland, Corrine Brown, Ander Crenshaw, Rich Nugent, Cliff Stearns, John Mica, Dan Webster, Gus Bilirakis, Bill Young, Dennis Ross, Vern Buchanan, Connie Mack, Bill Posey, Tom Rooney, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Mario Diaz-Balart, Allen West, Alcee Hastings, Sandy Adams and David Rivera.

Missing from the list are Florida Democrats Kathy Castor and Frederica Wilson.