WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, USA Rice staff joined the newly sworn-in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden for a stakeholder meeting as the Administration rolled out the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP). The briefing coincided with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins' formal announcement that sign-ups for SDRP have commenced.
The American Relief Act of 2025, which was signed into law on December 21, 2024, by President Joe Biden, included more than $30 billion for economic and disaster assistance. Earlier this year, Secretary Rollins outlined a comprehensive plan to deliver this critical assistance in a timely manner. Assistance began in March with the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP), which, to date, has disbursed more than $183 million to rice farmers throughout the United States. The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) continues to deliver that support to farmers through the SDRP, which will be implemented in two phases and total $16 billion in disaster assistance.
“USA Rice greatly appreciates the sense of urgency from the team at USDA for working to get this vital assistance to farmers with speed and efficiency,” said Jake Westlin, USA Rice vice president of government affairs. “The back-to-basics methodology is welcome and will help get this critical assistance to U.S. farmers in an efficient and timely manner.”
SDRP Stage One utilizes a streamlined pre-filled application to expedite the process by leveraging existing Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) data and data on file with the Risk Management Agency for losses covered by certain federal crop insurance policies. Farmers can also sign up in person at FSA county offices starting July 10. The first stage is open to farmers with eligible crop losses that received assistance under crop insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program during 2023 and 2024. Stage Two of the program is expected to begin in September 2025, which will help cover “shallow losses” and other quality issues, and will utilize the same methodology as Stage 1.
For a farmer to be eligible for Stage One payments, the crop, tree, and vine loss must be attributed to wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought, and related conditions occurring in calendar years 2023 and/or 2024. For the drought related losses, those must meet certain drought conditions and a full list of eligible counties can be found
here.
The payments for Stage One are based on the SDRP adjusted NAP or federal crop insurance coverage level that was purchased for the crop. For Stage One, the total payment cannot exceed 90 percent of the loss, and a factor of 35 percent will be applied to these payments. If additional SDRP funds remain, FSA can revise the factor and issue a second payment. However, this would occur after Stage Two payments are finalized and would be contingent upon available funds.
For an overview of the implementation dates for the American Relief Act of 2025, UDSA has created a helpful timeline summary, which can be found online
here. For additional information on SDRP Stage One and Stage Two, you can visit the SDRP landing page
here.