Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins today announced a schedule for the release of the $21 billion in weather-related disaster aid that Congress included in an end-of-2024 spending package.

Rollins told the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee today that a portal at which farmers can sign up for the aid would be established on the USDA website by the end of May. Rollins emphasized that distributing this aid has been more complicated than distributing the $10 billion market-related assistance because the disaster aid requires reaching agreements with the state governments that will distribute the aid.

Later, at a small farm roundtable at USDA with Gov. Jim Pillen, R-Neb., state agriculture officials and farmers and ranchers from 11 states, Rollins said she hopes the money can flow as rapidly as possible.

At the roundtable, Rollins also said she had signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture to improve collaboration and will launch a plan for family-owned farms to help them keep the farm in the family.

Asked by a Japanese reporter about when she would take an announced trip to Japan to promote U.S. exports, Rollins said she would travel to Japan and other Asian countries in late July.

In her congressional testimony, Rollins said she would visit seven countries in the next six months: Vietnam, Japan, India, Peru, Brazil, Italy and the United Kingdom. Rollins had previously announced that she would visit six countries, but the earlier announcement did not include Italy.

Asked by a reporter at the roundtable about the Trump administration’s plans to reorganize USDA and move some agencies out of Washington, Rollins said the plan will be announced in about a week and a half. She said that since most of the work of the U.S. Forest Service is in the West, it is questionable for the leadership of the Forest Service to be in Washington.