ATLANTA, Ga. (WALB) - Senator Jon Ossoff and Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper are at odds over when a certain type of hurricane relief will reach Georgia farmers.

This comes after Senator Ossoff sent a letter Wednesday, July 16 to the Commissioner and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins asking why they haven’t finalized negotiations on a block grant agreement for federal assistance.

“Just rewind back to 2018 when Hurricane Michael hit. It took Congress the better part of a year to pass disaster assistance for Georgia farmers,” Senator Ossoff said. “After Helene last year, I pushed that through the Senate in less than 90 days. We got it done quickly. But because of the state of Georgia and the USDA still not coming to an agreement on how to distribute these funds, many Georgia farmers are still in limbo and still in financial distress.”

In the letter, the senator stated that although some funds have been made available at the national level through the USDA, many Georgia farmers are not eligible for that assistance, and need the block grant.

Commissioner Harper said that claim is a, “misrepresentation of reality.”

Harper said that negotiations for the block grant began in May of this year, and that only $4 billion is tied up in the block grant agreement. The application for the other $16 billion in federal funds opened up to Georgia farmers last week.

The commissioner released a statement to WALB about this matter:

“Senator Ossoff is desperate to distract from the fact he just voted against a $60 billion investment to strengthen farm safety net and crop insurance programs, lower taxes for Georgia farm families, and increase reference prices to account for the inflation he helped Joe Biden create. He doesn’t need to use the press as a middleman to ask for an update on Georgia’s negotiations, he can pick up the phone and call me anytime.”

WALB will provide updates on when negotiations on the block grant funds are complete. Stay with us.

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Let us know. Please include the article’s headline in your message.

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook and X (Twitter). For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the Apple Store or Google Play.

Copyright 2025 WALB. All rights reserved.