HR 441Agriculture and Food
Drought Assistance Improvement Act This bill modifies access to two Farm Service Agency (FSA) administered programs: the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP). The bill modifies the LFP to allow for one monthly payment when a county has four consecutive weeks of a D2 rating (severe drought) and two payments for eight consecutive weeks of D2. Currently, one payment is available for eight consecutive weeks of D2. As background, LFP makes payments to eligible livestock producers who have suffered grazing losses on drought-affected pastureland, including cropland planted specifically for grazing. The bill also expands coverage under ELAP for losses caused by adverse weather or drought. The bill includes under ELAP the loss of a crawfish harvest due to adverse weather or drought. As background, ELAP provides payments to producers of livestock, honey bees, and farm-raised fish as compensation for losses due to disease, adverse weather, feed or water shortages, or other conditions that are not covered under other programs. The FSA must establish ELAP documentation standards for (1) collecting data, (2) the production of crawfish, and (3) defining loss conditions due to drought.
Introduced Jan 15, 2025Updated Feb 14, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry.
HR 442Agriculture and Food
Quality Loss Adjustment Improvement for Farmers Act This bill directs the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) to review and revise quality loss adjustment coverage and provides for the establishment of a regional discount factor for soybeans, as needed. The FCIC is a government corporation that finances and administers the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) operations. Under the FCIP, farmers may purchase insurance coverage against financial losses caused by certain adverse growing and market conditions, including for quality losses. The federal government subsidizes the premiums that farmers pay for these insurance policies. The bill directs the FCIC to contract with a qualified entity to conduct a review at least once every five years of the quality loss adjustment procedures. Based on each review, the FCIC must make adjustments to the procedures. Each review must include engagement from regionally diverse industry stakeholders for each agricultural commodity for which a quality loss adjustment is offered. The bill also directs the FCIC, in certain circumstances, to establish a state or regional discount factor for soybeans to reflect the average quality discounts applied to the local or regional market prices of the soybean crop. The FCIC must take this action in the event of (1) specific emergency or disaster declarations for a state or region, or (2) the occurrence of a salvage market for soybeans in a state or region.
Introduced Jan 15, 2025Updated Feb 14, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
HR 387Agriculture and Food
Texas Agricultural Producers Assistance Act This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to submit a report to Congress on USDA assistance available for agricultural producers in Texas related to Mexico's non-compliance with a 1944 treaty with the United States concerning water utilization. Specifically, the USDA report must list all of the existing USDA authorities and programs that are or could be made available to provide assistance to agricultural producers in Texas that have suffered economic losses due to Mexico not delivering water to the United States in accordance with the Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande, including the Supplementary Protocol.
Introduced Jan 14, 2025Updated Feb 14, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
HR 295Agriculture and Food
Fair Milk Pricing for Farmers Act This bill requires manufacturers to report production cost and product yield information for all dairy products processed in the same facility or facilities to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Dairy Product Mandatory Reporting Program. Further, USDA must publish a report containing the information obtained under these new requirements and publish a report every two years thereafter. As background, under the Dairy Product Mandatory Reporting Program, USDA must collect certain dairy product sales information from manufacturers and release the data on a weekly basis.
Introduced Jan 9, 2025Updated Feb 14, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
HR 292Agriculture and Food
Grape Research And Protection Expansion Act or the GRAPE Act This bill requires the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) to provide for the research and development of a policy to insure table, wine, and juice grapes against losses due to a freeze event. (Under current law, the term policy means an insurance policy, plan of insurance, provision of a policy or plan of insurance, and related materials.) The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, the agency that finances FCIP operations, must make any resulting policy available that meets specified FCIP requirements. The FCIP must also submit a report to Congress on the research and any resulting policy.
Introduced Jan 9, 2025Updated Feb 14, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
HR 294Agriculture and Food
Dairy Farm Resiliency Act This bill updates the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program. As background, the DMC program was enacted in the 2018 farm bill to support dairy operations by allowing producers to buy a guaranteed margin for their milk production. The margin is the difference between the Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) national all milk price and a calculated feed cost, which provides producers optional risk protection on price and feed costs. The bill updates the current requirements that a participating dairy producer have an established milk production history with USDA's Farm Service Agency. Specifically, the bill requires that a dairy operation's production history for DMC be based on the most recent three-year history and be recalculated every five years. The bill also increases Tier I margin coverage for annual milk production to 6 million pounds or less (currently 5 million pounds or less) and Tier II margin coverage to over 6 million pounds (currently over 5 million pounds).
Introduced Jan 9, 2025Updated Feb 14, 2025
Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.