Tag: Sonny Perdue

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USDA makes important updates to farmers.gov website

farmers.gov
Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue announces a couple of important updates to farmers.gov.(Photo from foodsafetynews.com)

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced says the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched two new features on farmers.gov to help customers manage their farm loans, as well as navigate the application process for H2A visas.

“Customer service is our top priority at USDA,” he says. “These new features will help our customers as they manage their farm loans and navigate the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program. In my travels across the country, I have consistently heard people tell us to use more technology to deliver programs at USDA. As we adopt new technology, we are introducing simple yet innovative approaches to support our farmers, ranchers, producers, and foresters. After all, they support the nation every day. It’s my goal to make USDA the most effective, most efficient, most customer-focused department in the entire federal government. Farmers.gov is a big step in that direction.”

In 2018, Secretary Perdue unveiled farmers.gov, a dynamic, mobile-friendly public website combined with an authenticated portal where customers will be able to apply for programs, process transactions and manage accounts.

Navigating the H-2A Visa Process:

Focused on education and smaller owner-operators, this farmers.gov H-2A Phase I release includes an H-2A Visa Program page and interactive checklist tool. It includes application requirements, fees, forms, and a timeline built around a farmer’s hiring needs.

You may view the video at this following link: youtu.be/E-TXREaZhnI

The H-2A Visa Program – also known as the temporary agricultural workers program – helps American farmers fill employment gaps by hiring workers from other countries. The U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of State, and state workforce agencies each manage parts of the H-2A Visa Program independently, with separate websites and complex business applications.

Over the next several months, USDA will collaborate further with the U.S. Department of Labor on farmers.gov H-2A Phase II. It’s a streamlined H-2A Visa Program application form, regulations, and digital application process that moves producers seamlessly from farmers.gov website to farmers.gov portal, and then to U.S. Department of Labor’s IT systems.

Managing Farm Loans Online:

The self-service website now enables agricultural producers to view loan information, history and payments.

Customers can access the “My Financial Information” feature by desktop computer, tablet or phone. They can now view:

  • loan information;
  • interest payments for the current calendar year (including year-to-date interest paid for the past five years);
  • loan advance and payment history;
  • paid-in-full and restructured loans; and
  • account alerts giving borrowers important notifications regarding their loans.

To access their information, producers will need a USDA eAuth account to login into farmers.gov. After obtaining an eAuth account, producers should visit farmers.gov and sign into the site’s authenticated portal via the “Sign In / Sign Up” link at the top right of the website.

Currently, only producers doing business as individuals can view information. Entities, such as an LLC or Trust, or producers doing business on behalf of another customer cannot access the portal at this time. However that will change in the future.

Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge are the recommended browsers to access the feature.

About farmers.gov:

USDA is building farmers.gov for farmers, by farmers. Future self-service features available through the farmers.gov portal will help producers find the right loan programs for their business and submit loan documents to their service center.

With feedback from customers and field employees who serve those customers, farmers.gov delivers farmer-focused features to deliver the greatest immediate value to America’s agricultural producers – helping farmers and ranchers do right, and feed everyone.

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The original intent of the SNAP program?

The SNAP program. It’s a polarizing discussion in already divided Washington, D.C. SNAP was a hot topic of discussion during a Senate hearing last week that featured the Secretary of Agriculture.

Sonny Perdue reiterated during a U.S. Senate hearing the need to restore the original intent of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The program’s intent is to be “a second chance, not a way of life.” USDA published a proposed rule to move able-bodied SNAP recipients into the workforce.

The proposed rule aims to make the program into assistance through difficult times, not lifelong dependency. This proposed rule focuses on work-related program requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents. It would apply to non-disabled people between the ages of 18 and 49, who have no dependents. The rule would not apply to the elderly, the disabled, or pregnant women. Those who are eligible to receive SNAP – including the underemployed – would still qualify.

There haven’t been any statutory changes to the welfare reform legislation of 1996. The Trump Administration feels an abuse of administrative flexibility in SNAP has undermined the ideal of self-sufficiency. President Bill Clinton signed the legislation that instituted work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents.

Then-President Clinton said, “First and foremost, it should be about moving people from welfare to work. It should impose time limits on welfare… It [work] gives structure, meaning and dignity to most of our lives.”

During last week’s Senate hearing, Secretary Perdue talked about work requirements and his proposed rule. He said: “What was accepted by the U.S. Senate and passed was the same bill that’s been there since the beginning of the Welfare Reform regarding the work requirements of 20 hours per week. And what you also passed was not a prohibition, it was no change to the fact that in one section it says that the Secretary may waive that applicability and we plan to do that for the ABAWDs. We think the purpose is to help people move to independency… We should help people when they are down but that should not be interminably.”

“…You all also provided for a 12 percent cushion for states that they could use for any purpose. But, we do not believe in states where unemployment is 4 percent that ABAWDs should be able to stay on food assistance interminably.”

You may click HERE or on the image below to watch Secretary Perdue’s remarks:

SNAP was a hot and divisive topic during a Senate hearing last week in Washington, D.C.

Background:

Congress implemented this work requirement in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996.

It allowed the Secretary, upon request from a State, to waive the work requirement during times of high unemployment.

The statute provides the Secretary withe authority to determine if an area has an insufficient jobs and qualifies for a waiver. The 2018 Farm Bill did not modify that discretion .