The Island of Kauai, which was completely devastated by Hurri- 

 cane Iniki, is a rural and primarily agrarian community. While 

 sugarcane accounts for the largest acreage on the island, a move 

 toward diversified agriculture in recent years has increased Kauai's 

 production of taro, papaya, avocado, coffee, macadamia nuts, ba- 

 nanas, cut flowers, nursery products, and other specialty items. 



However, it was these victims of Hurricane Iniki who experi- 

 enced the greatest difficulty in obtaining disaster assistance. This 

 was largely due to the fact that the crop disaster program is de- 

 signed for seasonal crops and the assistance provided is based on 

 losses in a calendar year. It does not accommodate the cir- 

 cumstances of year-round and tropical crops. It insists that some- 

 thing magical happens on December 31, which changes the tropical 

 fruit into pumpkin. 



Shortly after Kauai was hit by Hurricane Iniki, Congress pro- 

 vided supplemental appropriations of $482 million for the crops 

 losses as a result of Hurricanes Iniki, Andrew, and Typhoon Omar 

 in Public Law 102-368. These funds distributed in accordance with 

 the crop disaster program as outlined in the 1990 farm bill, meant 

 that only farmers with crop losses which occurred in the calendar 

 year 1992 — the year of disasters — would be eligible for assistance. 

 So our farmers could not get what they deserved for losses in 1992, 

 1993, and 1994. 



In addition, farmers had to experience a loss of 40 percent of 

 their crops in 1992. Because the hurricane did not hit until Sep- 

 tember of that year, most Kauai farmers did not have a 40 percent 

 crop loss for that year. 



Simply put, my farmers on the Island of Kauai could not qualify. 



Through the combined efforts of the Hawaii and Florida Congres- 

 sional Delegations, we were able to add language in H.R. 2118, a 

 1993 supplemental appropriations bill, to allow farmers impacted 

 by Hurricanes Andrew, Iniki, and Typhoon Omar to be eligible for 

 crop disaster assistance in crop years 1993, 1994, and 1995 — Public 

 Law 103-50. This legislation was signed into law on July 2, 1993 

 and the deadline set for applications was August 1, 1993. 



However, even following the passage of this legislation, Kauai 

 farmers continued to experience, difficulty in applying for and re- 

 ceiving crop disaster assistance, mostly due to administrative ac- 

 tions within the Department of Agriculture rather than legislative 

 barriers. 



The farmers were instructed by the ASCS that they could not 

 apply for compensation for crop losses in 1993, 1994, or 1995 un- 

 less they experienced 100 percent crop losses in each of those 

 years. There was no legislative basis for this policy. When con- 

 tacted by my office, the ASCS office stated that farmers should be 

 able to receive assistance for partial losses, not just 100 percent 

 losses. The matter was cleared up after much back and forth, and 

 the deadline for application was extended to September 17, 1993. 

 Nevertheless, this confusion caused great anguish among the farm- 

 ers who believed that once again the program had cut them out 

 and they are very disillusioned. 



Most recently the Department of Agriculture issued a policy 

 which denies compensation for crop losses in 1993, 1994, and 1995 

 for losses which occurred because of dead trees. This has virtually 



