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FSA office in Concordia temporarily reopened

The Farm Services Agency (FSA) office in Concordia is one of those that has been reopened temporarily during the government shutdown to provide certain limited services for farmers and ranchers.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced that 2,500 FSA employees have been recalled to open offices today, Friday and Tuesday with normal hours.
The offices will be closed for the federal Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday.
FSA staff will be available to assist agriculture producers with existing farm loans and to ensure the agency provides 1099 tax documents to borrowers by the Internal Revenue Service's deadline.
Staff members at the designated FSA offices will be available to help producers with specific services include:
Processing payments made on or before December 31, 2018, continuing expiring financing statements and opening mail to identify priority items.
Additionally, as an intermittent incidental duty, staff may release proceeds from the sale of loan security by signing checks jointly payable to FSA that are brought to the county office by producers.
While staff are available in person during the three-day window, most available services can be handled over the phone.
Additionally, farmers who have loan deadlines during the lapse in funding do not need to make payments until the government shutdown ends.
Reopened FSA officers will only be able to provide the specifically identified services while open during this limited time. Services that will not be available include, but are not limited to:
New direct or facility loans, new farm loan guarantees, new marketing assistance loans, new applications for Market Facilitation Program (MFP), certification of 2019 production for MFP payments, Dairy Margin Protection Program, disaster assistance programs such as livestock indemnity program, emergency conservation program, wildfires and hurricanes indemnity program, livestock forage disaster program and emergency assistance for livestock, honeybees and farm-raised fish.
While January 15, 2019 had been the original date for producers to apply for MFP, farmers have been able to apply since December 28, 2019, when the FSA offices closed because of the lapse in federal funding. Perdue has extended the MFP application deadline for a period of time equal to the number of business days FSA offices end up being closed, once the government shutdown ends. These announced days of limited staff availability during the shutdown will not constitute days open in calculating the extension. Producers who already applied for MFP and certified their 2018 production by December 28, 2018 should already have received their payments.

 

Concordia Blade-Empire

510 Washington St.
Concordia, KS 66901