The USDA was given permanent authority by the Disaster Assistance Act of 1988 to implement an array of emergency livestock feed programs. These programmes were designed to assist livestock producers who lose a significant amount of feed grown on the farm due to a natural disaster. The primary livestock feed programmes implemented by USDA were: (1) the Emergency Feed Assistance programme (EFAP), which provided farmers who experienced a large loss of feed production with government-owned grain at a subsidised price, and, (2) the Emergency Feed programme (EFP), a cost-share programme for farmers affected by a disaster who purchased their needed feed in the marketplace. To meet mandated budget savings requirements, the FAIR Act of 1996 suspended these programmes from the law through 2002.