WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined the Odd Lots podcast on Bloomberg today to highlight his leadership of the bipartisan Senate Chicken Caucus as well as the Healthy Poultry Assistance and Indemnification (HPAI) Act, his bipartisan bill to expand the safety net and compensation program to all poultry growers and layer operations within a highly pathogenic avian influenza control area.
As Co-Chair of the bipartisan Senate Chicken Caucus, Senator Coons has prioritized legislation to support farmers’ vital role in feeding America’s families. As part of that, Senators Coons and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) introduced the HPAI Act in June 2023, which would expand the compensation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Inspection Services (USDA-APHIS) to all poultry farmers in an avian flu control area and simplify the calculation of the payments to farmers to prevent a cash shortfall and be more transparent.
Under current APHIS policies, all poultry farms located within a 10-kilometer radius of an avian flu case are disallowed from placing flocks until the virus is contained. Afterward, all growers who have positive tests in their flocks receive compensation from the USDA, but not those within the 10-kilometer control area whose flocks don’t contract HPAI. As a result, while these growers undergo many of the same financial struggles as those whose flocks contract the virus, they aren’t compensated for their compliance with efforts to help contain HPAI. This bill would rectify that so all growers in the control area are duly compensated.
Last year, the American poultry industry was hit with its worst-ever HPAI outbreak. The outbreak affected 47 states and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to poultry growers and layer operations, raising the price of Americans’ most cost-effective animal protein source.
Bloomberg: Senator Chris Coons on How to Fix Our Response to Avian Flu
As a country, we’re very good at identifying Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreaks, or HPAI outbreaks, and what happens, frankly, is that the farmer whose flock is infected promptly gets a control order, has to depopulate, has to destroy his entire flock, and he’s then compensated by USDA for that. However, under current policy, all the other poultry farms in a six-mile radius or a 10-kilometer radius around that HPAI case are not allowed to bring new flocks in until the virus is deemed fully contained.
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My sense is that growers undergo significant financial struggles, but there is a real gap between those who have a positive HPAI case and those who aren’t compensated in the same area. I am optimistic that working with my friend and partner, Senator Wicker, and the other 15 members from across the country of our bipartisan Senate Chicken Caucus, that we’re going to be successful in adding additional compensation through the farm bill this year.
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The Chicken Caucus recognizes that chicken is a really important agricultural product for all of the United States. It’s critical to my home state of Delaware, but across the country, [there are] 300,000 people who work in the poultry industry. It generates about $45 billion a year and [there are] major operations in about 30 states, but instead of having a common and cohesive voice in the Senate when I got here 13 years ago, there really wasn’t that. So, with my dear friend and late colleague, Senator Johnny Isakson [R] of Georgia, Johnny and I launched the Chicken Caucus in 2013. Part of this is just good old home-state interests for me. Delaware has 200 times more chickens than people. It generates about $7 billion a year in economic activity for my state. It really defines agriculture in Delaware.
Listen to the entire podcast episode here.