(NAFB) – North Dakota Republican John Hoeven and Montana Democrat Jon Tester introduced bipartisan legislation in the Senate to improve livestock disaster assistance.

The Hagstrom Report says the bill is designed to accomplish several things, including aligning coverage between the Livestock Forage Program (LFP) and Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP). It will also increase producer assistance under LFP to compensate them more accurately for feed costs, specify transportation costs for feed and water as covered losses under ELAP, and make those program improvements permanent.

“Our livestock producers are facing real challenges during this drought,” Hoeven says, “Our bipartisan legislation makes common-sense improvements to the Livestock Forage and Emergency Livestock Assistance Programs to better meet the needs of those with boots on the ground.”

Hoeven is the ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, and Tester also serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee. They both say that ranchers are “really up against it” and are doing all they can to help them through this severe weather.

Tester says, “The devastating drought has touched every corner of Montana and put a real hurt on livestock producers in our state.”