Washington DC - March 11 - U.S. policy toward natural catastrophe risk is largely reactive and a comprehensive, forward-looking national natural disaster policy is needed, the National Association of Realtors said in testimony to two House panels.

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Washington DC - February 26 - Roger Beachy, director of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced a new grant program to develop healthier food products for humanitarian assistance programs.

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Washington DC - February 8 - The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the United States will work with its partners around the world to relieve all debts owed by Haiti to international institutions and to ensure grant financing to support Haiti’s reconstruction and recovery from the devastating earthquake in January.

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Washington DC - January 26- People who give to charities providing earthquake relief in Haiti can claim these donations on the tax return they are completing this season, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

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Washington DC - January 20 - The United States Government has mobilized resources and people and continues to coordinate America’s relief efforts in Haiti with the United Nations and the international community.

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Washington DC - January 19 - Vice President Joe Biden announced new procedures to allow local governments in Louisiana and Mississippi that received Special Community Disaster Loans (Special CDL) following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to apply for loan forgiveness.

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Washington DC - January 14 - The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is headed toward earthquake-devastated Haiti along with several other Defense Department ships and Coast Guard vessels, from small ships to destroyers to cutters, some with limited humanitarian assistance supplies and helicopters aboard.

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Washington DC - January 8 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that USDA has already made more than $175 million in disaster payments to America’s livestock producers after implementing two new programs in 2009.

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Washington DC - December 28 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA has implemented the new Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments program (SURE) in accordance with the 2008 Farm Bill.

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Washington DC - December 22 - A U.S. Air Force conference focused on ways Air Force officials can consolidate their efforts with other organizations to gain access into the national airspace system.

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Washington DC - November 24 - The American Soybean Association (ASA) is urging Congress to provide funding to deliver much-needed financial assistance to farmers and rural communities to assist them in recovering from devastating losses caused by hurricanes, excessive rain during harvest and other natural disasters across the country.

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Washington DC - November 23 - The National Cotton Council has been joined by other national commodity organizations and related agri-businesses in expressing strong support for the prompt passage of legislation to provide funding for emergency disaster assistance.

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Washington DC - November 6 - The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved two bills to improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) management of resources and capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters.

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Washington DC - November 6 - Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Jonathan Coppess said that the 2009 FSA county committee elections will begin tomorrow, Nov. 6, with USDA mailing ballots to eligible voters. The deadline to return the ballots to local FSA offices is Dec. 7, 2009.

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Washington DC - November 4 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated counties in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma as primary natural disaster areas because of losses caused by drought, above-normal temperatures and associated wildfires that that occurred during 2009.

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