[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5825 Introduced in House (IH)]
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115th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5825
To expand crop insurance available to beginning farmers and ranchers,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 15, 2018
Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To expand crop insurance available to beginning farmers and ranchers,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Whole Farm Crop Insurance
Improvement Act of 2018''.
SEC. 2. NONINSURED CROP ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.
Section 196 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act
of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7333) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)(2)--
(A) by adding at the end the following new
subparagraph:
``(D) Inclusion of beginning farmers.--The term
`eligible crop' shall include each commercial crop or
other agricultural commodity (except livestock)
produced by a beginning farmer that is ineligible for a
whole farm diversified risk management insurance plan
under section 522(c)(19) of the Federal Crop Insurance
Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)(19)) due to lack of production or
revenue history.''; and
(B) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``In'' and
inserting ``Except as provided in subparagraph (D),
in'';
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(m) Additional Beginning Farmer Provisions.--
``(1) Eligibility.--Notwithstanding any other provisions of
this section, the following additional coverage shall be made
available to any beginning farmer for up to the greater of the
following:
``(A) Four years.
``(B) The number of years of revenue history
required for the farmer to qualify for the whole farm
diversified risk management insurance plan under
section 522(c)(19) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7
U.S.C. 1522(c)(19)).
``(2) Coverage.--Additional coverage shall be available to
beginning farmers under this subsection up to 75 percent, as
elected by the farmer and specified in 5-percent increments.''.
SEC. 3. WHOLE FARM DIVERSIFIED MANAGEMENT INSURANCE PLAN.
Section 522(c)(19) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act is amended by
adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(E) Administrative and operating expenses.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the
Corporation may allow approved insurance providers to
use an alternate compensation structure for the
administration of plans under this paragraph--
``(i) that compensates agents based solely
on the amount of time necessary to write and
administer such plans;
``(ii) that proportionally compensates
agents for the time necessary to write and
administer such a plan; or
``(iii) for crop adjustment claims.
``(F) Paperwork reduction.--The Corporation shall
seek to ensure that the paperwork requirements of
agents and producers associated with the plan under
this paragraph are--
``(i) minimized to the maximum extent
possible; and
``(ii) actuarially sound.
``(G) Expanding operations.--To the maximum extent
possible, the Corporation shall ensure that all
producers, including producers with an expected revenue
from an operation that is greater than 35 percent of
the revenue for the previous year, are able to obtain
coverage under the plan under this paragraph.
``(H) Community supported agriculture report.--Not
later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of
this subparagraph, the Risk Management Agency shall
submit to Congress a report on the extent to which it
would be practicable to offer plans under this
paragraph to producers using community-supported
agriculture for sales.
``(I) Paperwork reduction.--The Corporation shall
conduct activities or enter into contracts to carry out
research and development to develop a paperwork
reduction policy that--
``(i) is only available to operations with
less than $1,000,000 in revenue; and
``(ii) streamlines the purchase and
approval process to the maximum extent possible
while maintaining actuarial soundness.
``(J) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date
of the enactment of this subparagraph, the Risk
Management Agency shall submit a report to Congress on
the feasibility of allowing producers, with respect to
claims for such year--
``(i) to exclude crop year revenue for such
year; and
``(ii) use--
``(I) an average of previous crop
years revenues; or
``(II) 60 percent of the county
average revenue.''.
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