WASHINGTON, DC- Representative Adrian Smith (R-NE) today voted to pass H.R. 2206, a $120 billion emergency supplemental spending bill, which provides $3 billion in disaster assistance to farmers and ranchers.

"This emergency funding has been a long time coming. Since I first came to Congress, this aid package has been a priority. It was unfortunate this much-needed agriculture disaster aid was used as a political bargaining chip," Smith said.

Earlier attempts at passing disaster assistance this year were tied to legislation placing timelines for U.S. troop involvement in Iraq, which proved to be a serious hurdle for the disaster aid.

The bill provides agriculture assistance to producers experiencing crop losses in 2005, 2006, or 2007 due to bad weather. Farmers experiencing losses in more than one year would be required to choose only one year for which they wish to receive loss compensation.

It also provides compensation for livestock losses in 2005, 2006, and 2007, due to a disaster, including wildfire in Texas and other States and blizzards in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Cattlemen experiencing losses in more than one year would be required to choose only one year for which they wish to receive loss compensation.

The bill also allocates $30 million for administrative expenses at the Farm Service Agency.

The bill provides roughly $60 billion for our military forces, veterans' health, and to implement military base-closings and realignment. It also includes $500 million for wildfires in the western United States and $425 million for payments to rural counties unable to tax federal land.

"This bill provides our troops and our agriculture producers the funds then need and have long been promised," Smith said.