Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB1271 Compare Versions

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11 II
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION S. 1271
55 To amend the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996
66 with respect to transitioning producers from the noninsured crop assist-
77 ance program to the whole farm revenue insurance plan.
88 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
99 APRIL3, 2025
1010 Mr. B
1111 LUMENTHAL (for himself and Mr. MURPHY) introduced the following
1212 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture,
1313 Nutrition, and Forestry
1414 A BILL
1515 To amend the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform
1616 Act of 1996 with respect to transitioning producers from
1717 the noninsured crop assistance program to the whole
1818 farm revenue insurance plan.
1919 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2020 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2121 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2222 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Save Our Small Farms 4
2323 Act of 2025’’. 5
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2727 SEC. 2. ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATION OF NON-1
2828 INSURED CROP ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. 2
2929 Section 196 of the of the Federal Agriculture Im-3
3030 provement and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7333) is 4
3131 amended— 5
3232 (1) in subsection (a)(1)(C)— 6
3333 (A) in the matter preceding clause (i), by 7
3434 inserting ‘‘best facilitates’’ after ‘‘assistance 8
3535 program that’’; 9
3636 (B) in clause (i)— 10
3737 (i) by striking ‘‘best facilitates the use 11
3838 of that’’ and inserting ‘‘the use of those’’; 12
3939 and 13
4040 (ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 14
4141 (C) in clause (ii)— 15
4242 (i) by striking ‘‘ensures the avail-16
4343 ability of that’’ and inserting ‘‘the avail-17
4444 ability of those’’; and 18
4545 (ii) by striking the period at the end 19
4646 and inserting a semicolon; and 20
4747 (D) by adding at the end the following: 21
4848 ‘‘(iii) the expansion of crops listed on 22
4949 the national crop table of the Agency with 23
5050 a local average market price; 24
5151 ‘‘(iv) the voluntary graduation of pro-25
5252 gram participants to the whole farm rev-26
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5656 enue insurance plan developed under sec-1
5757 tion 522(c)(7) of the Federal Crop Insur-2
5858 ance Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)(7)); and 3
5959 ‘‘(v) the establishment of pilot project 4
6060 options for purposes of addressing emerg-5
6161 ing needs and collecting data to support 6
6262 the development of policies or plans of in-7
6363 surance offered under the Federal Crop In-8
6464 surance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.).’’; 9
6565 (2) in subsection (b), by striking paragraph (4) 10
6666 and inserting the following: 11
6767 ‘‘(4) S
6868 TREAMLINED APPLICATION PROCESS .— 12
6969 ‘‘(A) D
7070 EFINITION OF WHOLE FARM REV -13
7171 ENUE INSURANCE PLAN .—In this paragraph, 14
7272 the term ‘whole farm revenue insurance plan’ 15
7373 means the whole farm revenue insurance plan 16
7474 developed under section 522(c)(7) of the Fed-17
7575 eral Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)(7)). 18
7676 ‘‘(B) E
7777 STABLISHMENT.— 19
7878 ‘‘(i) I
7979 N GENERAL.—The Secretary 20
8080 shall establish a streamlined process for 21
8181 the submission of records and acreage re-22
8282 ports under paragraphs (2) and (3), re-23
8383 spectively, for— 24
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8787 ‘‘(I) diverse production systems, 1
8888 such as those typical of urban produc-2
8989 tion systems; 3
9090 ‘‘(II) other small-scale production 4
9191 systems; and 5
9292 ‘‘(III) direct-to-consumer produc-6
9393 tion systems. 7
9494 ‘‘(ii) I
9595 NCLUSIONS.—The streamlined 8
9696 process established under clause (i) shall 9
9797 include— 10
9898 ‘‘(I) reduced acreage report re-11
9999 quirements; and 12
100100 ‘‘(II) allowing the submission to 13
101101 the Secretary of 2 reports per year so 14
102102 as to accommodate later acreage re-15
103103 porting. 16
104104 ‘‘(C) O
105105 N-RAMP TO WHOLE FARM REVENUE 17
106106 INSURANCE PLAN.— 18
107107 ‘‘(i) I
108108 N GENERAL.—In the case of a 19
109109 producer using diverse production systems 20
110110 described in subparagraph (B)(i) that may 21
111111 be eligible for the whole farm revenue in-22
112112 surance plan, the Secretary, acting through 23
113113 the Administrator of the Agency, shall es-24
114114 tablish a streamlined revenue-based option 25
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118118 under the noninsured crop disaster assist-1
119119 ance program under this section to assist 2
120120 the producer to transition, on a voluntary 3
121121 basis, from the noninsured crop disaster 4
122122 assistance program under this section to 5
123123 the whole farm revenue insurance plan. 6
124124 ‘‘(ii) R
125125 EQUIREMENTS.—The stream-7
126126 lined revenue-based option established 8
127127 under clause (i) shall offer a premium dis-9
128128 count of— 10
129129 ‘‘(I) 25 percent for the first crop 11
130130 year for which a producer— 12
131131 ‘‘(aa) certifies that the pro-13
132132 ducer will transition from the 14
133133 noninsured crop disaster assist-15
134134 ance program under this section 16
135135 to the whole farm revenue insur-17
136136 ance plan not later than 3 years 18
137137 after the date of the certification; 19
138138 and 20
139139 ‘‘(bb) provides revenue his-21
140140 tory with respect to that crop 22
141141 year; 23
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145145 ‘‘(II) 50 percent for the crop 1
146146 year following the crop year described 2
147147 in subclause (I) if the producer— 3
148148 ‘‘(aa) certifies that the pro-4
149149 ducer will transition from the 5
150150 noninsured crop disaster assist-6
151151 ance program under this section 7
152152 to the whole farm revenue insur-8
153153 ance plan not later than 2 years 9
154154 after the date of the certification; 10
155155 and 11
156156 ‘‘(bb) provides revenue his-12
157157 tory with respect to that crop 13
158158 year; and 14
159159 ‘‘(III) 50 percent for the crop 15
160160 year following the crop year described 16
161161 in subclause (II) if the producer— 17
162162 ‘‘(aa) purchases insurance 18
163163 under the whole farm revenue in-19
164164 surance plan not later than 1 20
165165 year after the date of the certifi-21
166166 cation; and 22
167167 ‘‘(bb) provides revenue his-23
168168 tory with respect to that crop 24
169169 year. 25
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173173 ‘‘(iii) TAX FORM SCHEDULE F .—The 1
174174 Secretary shall accept the Internal Rev-2
175175 enue Service Tax Form Schedule F (or a 3
176176 successor form) with respect to a producer 4
177177 for purposes of establishing revenue history 5
178178 under clause (ii). 6
179179 ‘‘(iv) R
180180 EVENUE HISTORY SHARING .— 7
181181 The Secretary shall submit to the Federal 8
182182 Crop Insurance Corporation the revenue 9
183183 history submitted to the Secretary pursu-10
184184 ant to clause (ii). 11
185185 ‘‘(D) R
186186 ULEMAKING.—Not later than 90 12
187187 days after the date of enactment of the Save 13
188188 Our Small Farms Act of 2025 the Secretary 14
189189 shall issue regulations to ensure that premium 15
190190 discounts under this paragraph are only avail-16
191191 able to producers described in subparagraph 17
192192 (C)(i) that comply with this paragraph, to-18
193193 gether with such exceptions as the Secretary de-19
194194 termines to be necessary, including for pro-20
195195 ducers unable to purchase a whole farm plan.’’; 21
196196 (3) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the 22
197197 following: 23
198198 ‘‘(5) N
199199 OTICE OF CERTAIN LOSSES .—A producer 24
200200 of a hand-harvested or rapidly deteriorating crop 25
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204204 may submit to the Secretary evidence of a loss of 1
205205 that crop at any time after the 120-hour period fol-2
206206 lowing the loss in order to be eligible for assistance 3
207207 under this section. 4
208208 ‘‘(6) A
209209 PPRAISAL OF LOSS.— 5
210210 ‘‘(A) I
211211 N GENERAL.—In any case in which 6
212212 an appraisal of crop acreage is requested by a 7
213213 producer or determined to be necessary by a 8
214214 State agricultural official or a State executive 9
215215 director of the Agency for a year in which a no-10
216216 tice of loss is filed under this subsection, par-11
217217 ticularly in any case in which a loss adjuster is 12
218218 not available within 72 hours of the notice, the 13
219219 Secretary shall permit the following alternatives 14
220220 to an in-person appraisal by a loss adjuster: 15
221221 ‘‘(i) Remote appraisal, including time- 16
222222 stamped photographs, drone footage, and 17
223223 other technology applications. 18
224224 ‘‘(ii) Appraisal by field office staff of 19
225225 the Agency with requisite training, in con-20
226226 junction with a remote appraisal under 21
227227 clause (i). 22
228228 ‘‘(B) T
229229 RAINING.—The Secretary shall re-23
230230 quire field office staff to attend noninsured crop 24
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234234 disaster assistance appraisal training for pur-1
235235 poses of subparagraph (A)(ii).’’; 2
236236 (4) in subsection (e)(3), by striking ‘‘65 per-3
237237 cent’’ and inserting ‘‘100 percent’’; 4
238238 (5) in subsection (i)(2)— 5
239239 (A) in subparagraph (A), by striking 6
240240 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 7
241241 (B) in subparagraph (B), by striking the 8
242242 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 9
243243 (C) by adding at the end the following: 10
244244 ‘‘(C) notwithstanding subparagraphs (A) 11
245245 and (B), in the case of a limited resource, be-12
246246 ginning, or socially disadvantaged farmer, as 13
247247 determined by the Secretary, a veteran farmer 14
248248 or rancher (as defined in section 2501(a) of the 15
249249 Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act 16
250250 of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 2279(a))), or a producer par-17
251251 ticipating in the streamlined revenue-based op-18
252252 tion pursuant to subsection (b)(4)(C), 19
253253 $600,000.’’; 20
254254 (6) in subsection (k)(2)— 21
255255 (A) by striking ‘‘defined by the Secretary, 22
256256 or a veteran’’ and inserting ‘‘determined by the 23
257257 Secretary, a veteran’’; and 24
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261261 (B) by inserting ‘‘, or a producer partici-1
262262 pating in the streamlined revenue-based option 2
263263 pursuant to subsection (b)(4)(C)’’ before the 3
264264 period at the end; 4
265265 (7) in subsection (l), by striking paragraph (3) 5
266266 and inserting the following: 6
267267 ‘‘(3) P
268268 REMIUM DISCOUNT.—The coverage made 7
269269 available under this subsection shall be available to 8
270270 limited resource, beginning, or socially disadvan-9
271271 taged farmers, as determined by the Secretary, vet-10
272272 eran farmers or ranchers (as defined in section 11
273273 2501(a) of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and 12
274274 Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 2279(a))), and pro-13
275275 ducers participating in the streamlined revenue- 14
276276 based option pursuant to subsection (b)(4)(C), in ex-15
277277 change for a premium that is 25 percent of the pre-16
278278 mium determined under paragraph (2).’’; and 17
279279 (8) by adding at the end the following: 18
280280 ‘‘(m) D
281281 ELIVERY.—The Secretary shall collaborate 19
282282 with outreach and technical assistance providers, exten-20
283283 sion offices, and State departments of agriculture to ad-21
284284 vertise the noninsured crop disaster assistance program 22
285285 under this section, particularly to limited resource, begin-23
286286 ning, or socially disadvantaged farmers, as determined by 24
287287 the Secretary, veteran farmers or ranchers (as defined in 25
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291291 section 2501(a) of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, 1
292292 and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 2279(a))), and pro-2
293293 ducers eligible to participate in the streamlined revenue- 3
294294 based option pursuant to subsection (b)(4)(C).’’. 4
295295 Æ
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