The roughly $748 billion coronavirus relief package, negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators, contained a number of provisions important to agriculture, including $13 billion that USDA could use to compensate sectors that have been left out of previously relief efforts, including the two Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payments. Among the sectors looking for a position of the aid: Ethanol producers, contract poultry growers, textile plants, and pork producers who had to depopulate herds because of processing disruptions.
The package also would authorize $13 billion in food assistance, including a temporary 15% increase in SNAP benefits, and provide $10 billion for broadband improvements. Another key provision would allow farmers and other small businesses that obtained Paycheck Protection Program loans to deduct from their tax obligations the same expenses they used to qualify for loan forgiveness.