America's 1988 drought captured attention everywhere, but especially in Washington where politicians pushed through the largest disaster relief measure in U.S. history. The Associated Press went back to track where the $3.9 billion went and found the money spread far beyond the drought.
An investigation revealed that the record $3.9 billion drought relief program of 1988, hailed as salvation for devastated small mid-western grain farmers, became an unexpected election-year windfall for thousands of unintended farmers. The bill was broadened by Congress to include hail, then floods, next heat, and eventually, insects, sand, wind, cold and fungus. Farmers in non-drought areas such as California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts benefited. Nevertheless, the program did provide crucial assistance where needed, particularly in hard-hit North Dakota, where an estimated $1.1 million drought loss was cut by 36 percent to $706 million.