Bill Would Help Protect Crops, Save Economy Billions

Washington, DC, Oct 4, 2006 - U.S. Congressman John Carter (TX-31) supported House passage of a bill that will ease the devastation brought by severe droughts, which destroy large portions of the nation’s croplands and drain billions of dollars from the U.S. economy every year.

“Unfortunately, Texans are all-too familiar with the agriculture and economic damage caused by droughts. In fact, in 2006, nearly 90 percent of our great state suffered drought conditions of moderate or worse,” Congressman John Carter said. “The bill we passed will lessen the devastation caused by drought by equipping our farmers and water resource managers with the tools they need to prepare for and respond to drought situations.”

Congressman Carter continued, “This bill is great news for a number of industries throughout Central Texas. Better forecasting of coming droughts will allow water managers to change reservoir release schedules and water restrictions, farmers to choose crops with lower water demands and change the timing of high-water use crops, and forest managers to pre-position water and fire-fighting assets to reduce the likelihood of devastating fires. Further, animal stock owners will also be able to budget for increased feed costs and sell excess stock early when prices are still high. It is clear that with improved monitoring and forecasting, our economy will be spared billion of dollars in damages every year.”

H.R. 5136, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act of 2006, would build upon existing federal programs to establish a coordinated federal effort to more accurately monitor and predict costly droughts. More specifically, the bill would establish a National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) that would help decision makers better prepare for drought periods by expanding monitoring and data collection systems to include coordinated, comprehensive coverage of key indicators such as soil moisture and ground water; implementing an integrated data collection and dissemination system; and developing effective and useful tools to support analysis and decision making at all levels and geographic scales.