White House Forms Drought Task Force

August 13, 1999

The Clinton Administration has formed a task force to coordinate the federal response to the drought problems in various parts of the country, notably the East Coast. Federal responses to assist communities also were identified and announced.

Earlier this week, the task force, headed by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Maria Echaveste, began cataloguing the federal efforts so far to address the drought and identified potential additional federal responses to help communities respond to developing emergencies.

Commerce Secretary William Daley has instructed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make available to managers, planners and the public a weekly assessment of potential heat threats. The assessment consists of maps that show where extreme conditions such as temperature, precipitation, wind and drought are forecast over the coming three to ten days.

USDA, Commerce and the National Drought Mitigation Center will work together on a drought monitoring and forecast service to summarize the extent and intensity of drought conditions and forecast whether droughts will strengthen or weaken. It is available on the Internet at

For next summer, NOAA is to extend extreme heat forecasts for up to two weeks in advance. The predictions will include probabilities of consecutive days heat indices will exceed critical values.

USDA has declared all of Connecticut, 19 counties in Maryland, six more counties in New York, five counties in Virginia and one county in New Mexico agricultural disaster areas and eligible for emergency, low-interest loans from heat and drought. The declaration also triggers low interest Small Business Administration loans for businesses dependent on agriculture.

In addition, USDA has approved nearly $4.9 million for 11 states for the Emergency Conservation Program funds for the drought. The program provides emergency cost-share funding for water conservation, federal crop insurance and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program.