II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 231
To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to authorize the Federal Crop
Insurance Corporation to carry out research and development on a single
index insurance policy, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mr. W
ELCH(for himself, Ms. WARREN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. MURPHY, Mr.
P
ADILLA, Mr. SANDERS, and Mr. VANHOLLEN) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to authorize the
Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to carry out re-
search and development on a single index insurance pol-
icy, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Withstanding Extreme 4
Agricultural Threats by Harvesting Economic Resilience 5
Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘WEATHER Act of 2025’’. 6
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 231 IS
SEC. 2. SINGLE INDEX INSURANCE POLICY. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 522(c) of the Federal 2
Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)) is amended by 3
adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(20) S
INGLE INDEX INSURANCE POLICY .— 5
‘‘(A) D
EFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 6
‘‘(i) C
OVERED CROP OR COM -7
MODITY.—The term ‘covered crop or com-8
modity’ means any crop or commodity (in-9
cluding a specialty crop) on a farm except 10
timber, forest products, animals for sport 11
or show, and pets. 12
‘‘(ii) C
OVERED POLICY.—The term 13
‘covered policy’ means the single index in-14
surance policy described in subparagraph 15
(B)(i). 16
‘‘(iii) C
OVERED WEATHER CONDI -17
TION.— 18
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The term 19
‘covered weather condition’ means any 20
of the following weather conditions 21
that are found to be closely correlated 22
with agricultural income losses: 23
‘‘(aa) High winds. 24
‘‘(bb) Excessive moisture 25
and flooding. 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 231 IS
‘‘(cc) Extreme heat. 1
‘‘(dd) Abnormal freeze con-2
ditions. 3
‘‘(ee) Wildfire. 4
‘‘(ff) Hail. 5
‘‘(gg) Drought. 6
‘‘(hh) Any other severe 7
weather or growing conditions 8
applicable to small-scale farmers, 9
as determined by the Secretary. 10
‘‘(II) D
ATA.—The existence of a 11
weather condition described in sub-12
clause (I) shall be determined by indi-13
ces that prioritize using data from the 14
National Oceanic and Atmospheric 15
Administration, as available, but may 16
use other federally or State certified 17
weather data sources, public and pri-18
vate satellite data, and weather and 19
climate data and models, if necessary, 20
as determined by the Secretary. 21
‘‘(B) P
OLICY.— 22
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Corporation 23
shall carry out research and development, 24
or offer to enter into 1 or more contracts 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 231 IS
with 1 or more qualified persons to carry 1
out research and development, to develop a 2
single index policy to insure against agri-3
cultural income losses due to 1 or more 4
covered weather conditions. 5
‘‘(ii) C
OVERAGE.—Research and de-6
velopment on the covered policy under 7
clause (i) shall require that coverage is 8
available in all 50 States (including Indian 9
Tribes), the District of Columbia, Amer-10
ican Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of 11
the Northern Mariana Islands, the Com-12
monwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Virgin 13
Islands of the United States. 14
‘‘(iii) O
PTION TO BUY-UP OR BUY- 15
DOWN.— 16
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—Research and 17
development on the covered policy 18
under clause (i) shall consider permit-19
ting a holder of the covered policy to 20
elect to buy-up to 150 percent, subject 21
to subclause (II), or buy-down to 5 22
percent, of the median county-level 23
adjusted gross income for farms, in 5- 24
percent increments, to reflect the in-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 231 IS
come of the individual farm business 1
of the holder insured under the cov-2
ered policy. 3
‘‘(II) L
IMITATION.—A holder of 4
a covered policy may buy-up under 5
subclause (I) only if the farms of the 6
holder insured under the covered pol-7
icy have at least 3 covered crops or 8
commodities. 9
‘‘(iv) P
RIORITY FEATURES OF POL -10
ICY.—In carrying out research and devel-11
opment on the covered policy under clause 12
(i), the following features may be given 13
priority: 14
‘‘(I) Agricultural income losses 15
under the covered policy include— 16
‘‘(aa) losses for all covered 17
crops or commodities; and 18
‘‘(bb) losses to the value of 19
packing, packaging, or any other 20
similar on-farm activity that the 21
Corporation determines necessary 22
to remove a covered crop or com-23
modity from the field. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•S 231 IS
‘‘(II) Payments are made under 1
the covered policy not later than 30 2
days after the occurrence of a covered 3
weather condition in the county in 4
which the applicable farm of the farm-5
er is located or an adjacent county. 6
‘‘(III) Provision of seasonal cov-7
erage periods. 8
‘‘(IV) Provision of special consid-9
eration to concerns facing individual 10
farm businesses— 11
‘‘(aa) that have less than 12
$350,000 in adjusted gross in-13
come; and 14
‘‘(bb) with respect to which 15
a farmer is an underserved pro-16
ducer (as defined in section 17
508(a)(7)(A)). 18
‘‘(V) Paperwork requirements are 19
reduced for farmers seeking to obtain 20
a covered policy. 21
‘‘(v) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out 22
research and development on the covered 23
policy under clause (i), the Corporation— 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7
•S 231 IS
‘‘(I) shall hold stakeholder meet-1
ings to solicit producer and agent 2
feedback; and 3
‘‘(II) may consult with licensed 4
actuaries with experience developing 5
index policies insuring agricultural 6
production. 7
‘‘(C) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year 8
after the date of enactment of this paragraph, 9
the Corporation shall make publicly available a 10
report that describes— 11
‘‘(i) the results of the research and 12
development carried out under this para-13
graph; and 14
‘‘(ii) recommendations to Congress 15
with respect to those results, including— 16
‘‘(I) any challenges to developing 17
the covered policy; and 18
‘‘(II) options to address those 19
challenges.’’. 20
(b) T
ECHNICALAMENDMENT.—Section 531(a)(18) 21
of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1531(a)(18)) 22
is amended by striking ‘‘section 2501(e) of the Food, Agri-23
culture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 24
2279(e))’’ and inserting ‘‘section 2501(a) of the Food, Ag-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8
•S 231 IS
riculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 1
2279(a)).’’. 2
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:00 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S231.IS S231
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS