II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 904
To improve disaster assistance programs of the Department of Agriculture,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. T
HUNE(for himself and Mr. LUJA´N) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition,
and Forestry
A BILL
To improve disaster assistance programs of the Department
of Agriculture, 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 ‘‘Livestock Disaster As-4
sistance Improvement Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. EMERGENCY CONSERVATION PROGRAM IMPROVE-6
MENTS. 7
(a) A
DDITIONALREQUIREMENTS.—Title IV of the 8
Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 is amended by inserting 9
after section 402B (16 U.S.C. 2202b) the following: 10
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‘‘SEC. 402C. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR EMERGENCY 1
CONSERVATION PROGRAM. 2
‘‘(a) E
LIGIBILITY OFFEDERAL, STATE, ANDLOCAL 3
L
ANDUSERS.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An agricultural producer 5
eligible to receive payments under sections 401 and 6
402 includes a person that— 7
‘‘(A) holds a permit from the Federal Gov-8
ernment to conduct agricultural production or 9
grazing on Federal land; or 10
‘‘(B) leases land from a State or unit of 11
local government to conduct agricultural pro-12
duction or grazing on that land. 13
‘‘(2) E
FFECT.—Nothing in this subsection au-14
thorizes the Secretary to make a payment under sec-15
tion 401 or 402 to a State or unit of local govern-16
ment. 17
‘‘(b) P
ERMANENT IMPROVEMENTS.—Emergency 18
measures eligible for payments under sections 401 and 19
402 include— 20
‘‘(1) new permanent measures, including per-21
manent water wells and pipelines; and 22
‘‘(2) replacement or restoration of existing 23
emergency measures with permanent measures, in-24
cluding permanent water wells and pipelines. 25
‘‘(c) S
TREAMLININGAPPLICATIONPROCESS.— 26
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‘‘(1) WAIVER OF PUBLIC COMMENT .—During a 1
drought emergency, as determined by the Secretary, 2
the 30-day public comment period required under 3
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 4
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall be waived with respect to 5
an application to carry out emergency measures 6
under section 401 or 402 on land administered by 7
the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Di-8
rector of the Bureau of Land Management (referred 9
to in this subsection as the ‘Secretary of the Inte-10
rior’). 11
‘‘(2) A
CCEPTANCE OF NRCS REVIEWS .—With 12
respect to an application to carry out emergency 13
measures under section 401 or 402 on land adminis-14
tered by the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary 15
of the Interior may accept— 16
‘‘(A) during a drought emergency, as de-17
termined by the Secretary, an archeological re-18
view conducted by the Secretary, acting through 19
the Chief of the Natural Resources Conserva-20
tion Service, for purposes of an archeological 21
review required to be conducted; 22
‘‘(B) an environmental review under the 23
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 24
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) conducted by the Sec-25
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retary, acting through the Chief of the Natural 1
Resources Conservation Service, for purposes of 2
such an environmental review required to be 3
conducted; and 4
‘‘(C) a review under the Endangered Spe-5
cies Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) con-6
ducted by the Secretary, acting through the 7
Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation 8
Service, for purposes of such a review required 9
to be conducted.’’. 10
(b) E
MERGENCY FORESTRESTORATION PRO-11
GRAM.—Section 407 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 12
1978 (16 U.S.C. 2206) is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (a)— 14
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (1) 15
through (3) as paragraphs (3) through (5), re-16
spectively; 17
(B) by inserting before paragraph (3) (as 18
so redesignated) the following: 19
‘‘(1) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en-20
tity’ means— 21
‘‘(A) with respect to nonindustrial private 22
forest land, an owner of the nonindustrial pri-23
vate forest land; 24
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‘‘(B) with respect to Federal land, a per-1
son that holds a permit from the Federal Gov-2
ernment to conduct agricultural production or 3
grazing on the Federal land; and 4
‘‘(C) with respect to land owned by a State 5
or a unit of local government, a person that 6
leases land from the State or unit of local gov-7
ernment to conduct agricultural production or 8
grazing on that land. 9
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBLE LAND.—The term ‘eligible land’ 10
means— 11
‘‘(A) nonindustrial private forest land; 12
‘‘(B) Federal land; and 13
‘‘(C) land owned by a State or unit of local 14
government.’’; and 15
(C) in paragraph (3) (as so redesig-16
nated)— 17
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 18
(I) in the matter preceding clause 19
(i), by striking ‘‘nonindustrial private 20
forest land’’ and inserting ‘‘eligible 21
land’’; and 22
(II) by redesignating clauses (i) 23
and (ii) as subclauses (I) and (II), re-24
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spectively, and indenting appro-1
priately; 2
(ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 3
(A) and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respec-4
tively, and indenting appropriately; 5
(iii) in the matter preceding clause (i) 6
(as so redesignated), by striking ‘‘The 7
term’’ and inserting the following: 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term’’; and 9
(iv) by adding at the end the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(B) I
NCLUSIONS.—The term ‘emergency 12
measures’ includes— 13
‘‘(i) new permanent measures de-14
scribed in subparagraph (A), including per-15
manent water wells and pipelines; and 16
‘‘(ii) replacement or restoration of ex-17
isting emergency measures with permanent 18
measures described in subparagraph (A), 19
including permanent water wells and pipe-20
lines.’’; 21
(2) in subsection (b)— 22
(A) by striking ‘‘an owner of nonindustrial 23
private forest land who’’ and inserting ‘‘an eli-24
gible entity that’’; and 25
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(B) by striking ‘‘restore the land’’ and in-1
serting ‘‘restore eligible land’’; 2
(3) in subsection (c)— 3
(A) by striking ‘‘owner must’’ and insert-4
ing ‘‘eligible entity shall’’; and 5
(B) by striking ‘‘nonindustrial private for-6
est land’’ and inserting ‘‘eligible land’’; 7
(4) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘an owner of 8
nonindustrial private forest land’’ and inserting ‘‘an 9
eligible entity’’; 10
(5) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub-11
section (g); and 12
(6) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘(e) S
TREAMLININGAPPLICATIONPROCESS.— 15
‘‘(1) W
AIVER OF PUBLIC COMMENT .—During a 16
drought emergency, as determined by the Secretary, 17
the 30-day public comment period required under 18
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 19
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) shall be waived with respect to 20
an application to carry out emergency measures 21
under this section on land administered by the Sec-22
retary of the Interior, acting through the Director of 23
the Bureau of Land Management (referred to in this 24
subsection as the ‘Secretary of the Interior’). 25
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‘‘(2) ACCEPTANCE OF NRCS REVIEWS .—With 1
respect to an application to carry out emergency 2
measures under this section on land administered by 3
the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the 4
Interior may accept— 5
‘‘(A) during a drought emergency, as de-6
termined by the Secretary, an archeological re-7
view conducted by the Secretary, acting through 8
the Chief of the Natural Resources Conserva-9
tion Service, for purposes of an archeological 10
review required to be conducted; 11
‘‘(B) an environmental review under the 12
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 13
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) conducted by the Sec-14
retary, acting through the Chief of the Natural 15
Resources Conservation Service, for purposes of 16
such an environmental review required to be 17
conducted; and 18
‘‘(C) a review under the Endangered Spe-19
cies Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) con-20
ducted by the Secretary, acting through the 21
Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation 22
Service, for purposes of such a review required 23
to be conducted. 24
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‘‘(f) EFFECT.—Nothing in this section authorizes the 1
Secretary to make a payment under this section to a State 2
or unit of local government.’’. 3
(c) C
LERICALIMPROVEMENTS.— 4
(1) R
EPEAL.—Section 406 of the Agricultural 5
Credit Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2201 note; Public 6
Law 95–334) is repealed. 7
(2) H
EADING FORMAT CORRECTIONS .— 8
(A) Section 402 of the Agricultural Credit 9
Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2202) is amended— 10
(i) by striking the section designation 11
and all that follows through ‘‘authorized’’ 12
and inserting the following: 13
‘‘SEC. 402. WATER CONSERVATION AND WATER ENHANCING 14
MEASURES DURING SEVERE DROUGHT. 15
‘‘The Secretary is authorized’’; and 16
(ii) by striking ‘‘during’’ and all that 17
follows through ‘‘of’’ and inserting ‘‘during 18
a period of’’. 19
(B) Section 403 of the Agricultural Credit 20
Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2203) is amended by 21
striking the section designation and all that fol-22
lows through ‘‘authorized’’ in subsection (a) 23
and inserting the following: 24
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‘‘SEC. 403. EMERGENCY WATERSHED PROGRAM. 1
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized’’. 2
(C) Section 405 of the Agricultural Credit 3
Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2205) is amended by 4
striking the section designation and all that fol-5
lows through ‘‘authorized’’ and inserting the 6
following: 7
‘‘SEC. 405. REGULATIONS. 8
‘‘The Secretary is authorized’’. 9
(3) R
EORDERING.—Title IV of the Agricultural 10
Credit Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2201 et seq.) is 11
amended— 12
(A) by redesignating sections 402C (as 13
added by subsection (a)), 403, 404, 405, and 14
407 (as amended by subsection (b)) as sections 15
403, 405, 407, 408, and 406, respectively, and 16
moving the sections so as to appear in numer-17
ical order; 18
(B) in section 402B (16 U.S.C. 2202b), by 19
striking the section designation and heading 20
and all that follows through ‘‘maximum’’ and 21
inserting the following: 22
‘‘(d) M
AXIMUMPAYMENT.—The maximum’’; and 23
(C) by moving that subsection (d) (as so 24
redesignated) so as to appear after subsection 25
(c) of section 402A (16 U.S.C. 2202a). 26
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(4) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS .—Section 402A of 1
the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2
2202a) (as amended by paragraph (3)(C)) is amend-3
ed— 4
(A) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘2279)’’ 5
and inserting ‘‘2279))’’; 6
(B) in subsection (c), in the subsection 7
heading, by striking ‘‘L
IMITATION’’ and insert-8
ing ‘‘T
OTALPAYMENT FORSINGLEEVENT’’; 9
(C) by striking the section designation and 10
heading and inserting the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 404. COST-SHARE REQUIREMENT; MAXIMUM PAY-12
MENT.’’ 13
; and 14
(D) by moving that section 404 (as so re-15
designated) so as to appear after section 403 16
(as redesignated by paragraph (3)(A)). 17
(5) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENT .—Section 18
1241(f)(9)(B) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 19
U.S.C. 3841(f)(9)(B)) is amended by striking ‘‘403’’ 20
and inserting ‘‘405’’. 21
SEC. 3. LIVESTOCK FORAGE DISASTER PROGRAM. 22
Section 1501(c)(3)(D)(ii)(I) of the Agricultural Act 23
of 2014 (7 U.S.C. 9081(c)(3)(D)(ii)(I)) is amended— 24
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(1) by striking ‘‘at least 8 consecutive’’ and in-1
serting the following: ‘‘not less than— 2
‘‘(aa) 4 consecutive weeks 3
during the normal grazing period 4
for the county, as determined by 5
the Secretary, shall be eligible to 6
receive assistance under this 7
paragraph in an amount equal to 8
1 monthly payment using the 9
monthly payment rate deter-10
mined under subparagraph (B); 11
or 12
‘‘(bb) 8 consecutive’’; and 13
(2) in item (bb) (as so designated), by striking 14
‘‘1 monthly payment’’ and inserting ‘‘2 monthly pay-15
ments’’. 16
SEC. 4. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FOR LIVESTOCK, HONEY 17
BEES, AND FARM-RAISED FISH. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1501(d) of the Agricul-19
tural Act of 2014 (7 U.S.C. 9081(d)) is amended— 20
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘drought,’’ 21
after ‘‘adverse weather,’’; 22
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘to reduce 23
losses’’ and all that follows through the period at the 24
end and inserting ‘‘to reduce losses caused by feed 25
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or water shortages (including transportation costs 1
for feed, water, livestock, and honey bees), disease, 2
adverse weather, drought, or other factors, as deter-3
mined by the Secretary, including inspections of cat-4
tle tick fever.’’; 5
(3) in paragraph (4)— 6
(A) by striking ‘‘In the case’’ and inserting 7
the following: 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In the case’’; and 9
(B) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(B) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR HONEY BEES .— 11
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of eli-12
gible producers of honey bees, the payment 13
rate under subparagraph (A) shall incor-14
porate per-hive and per-colony rates of 15
loss, subject to clause (ii). 16
‘‘(ii) D
ETERMINATION OF COLONY 17
LOSSES.— 18
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes 19
of clause (i), in determining honeybee 20
colony losses eligible for assistance 21
under this subsection, the Secretary 22
shall— 23
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‘‘(aa) review the normal 1
mortality rate used for the cal-2
culation of that assistance; and 3
‘‘(bb) adjust the normal 4
mortality rate described in item 5
(aa) as necessary to exclude 6
losses caused by colony collapse 7
disorder, as determined by the 8
Secretary. 9
‘‘(II) I
NSUFFICIENT DATA .—In 10
the absence of sufficient data to es-11
tablish the adjusted mortality rate de-12
scribed in subclause (I)(bb), the Sec-13
retary shall use the normal mortality 14
rate for honey bees applied for the 15
first fiscal year for which emergency 16
relief was provided to eligible pro-17
ducers of honey bees under section 18
531(e) of the Federal Crop Insurance 19
Act (7 U.S.C. 1531(e)).’’; and 20
(4) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(5) D
OCUMENTATION.— 22
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Any requirements for 23
the submission of documentation by an eligible 24
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producer to receive a payment under this sub-1
section shall be consistent nationwide. 2
‘‘(B) P
RODUCERS OF HONEY BEES .—The 3
Secretary, in consultation with eligible pro-4
ducers of honey bees, shall establish a standard, 5
for purposes of this subsection, for— 6
‘‘(i) collecting data; and 7
‘‘(ii) setting an annual rate for replac-8
ing colonies and hives of honey bees.’’. 9
(b) A
PPLICABILITY TO PRODUCERS OF HONEY 10
B
EES.—The Secretary of Agriculture shall apply the 11
amendments made by subsection (a) to producers of honey 12
bees such that there is no limit on the size of a beekeeping 13
operation with respect to those amendments. 14
SEC. 5. DROUGHT MONITOR INTERAGENCY WORKING 15
GROUP. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 17
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture 18
shall establish an interagency working group (referred to 19
in this section as the ‘‘working group’’) to improve the 20
availability of consistent, accurate, and reliable data for 21
use in producing the United States Drought Monitor in 22
accordance with section 12512 of the Agriculture Improve-23
ment Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 5856). 24
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(b) MEMBERSHIP.—The working group shall consist 1
of not fewer than— 2
(1) 3 representatives from the Department of 3
Agriculture, including 1 representative from each 4
of— 5
(A) the Office of the Chief Economist, who 6
shall serve as the Chair of the working group; 7
(B) the Forest Service; and 8
(C) the Farm Service Agency; 9
(2) 4 representatives from the National Oceanic 10
and Atmospheric Administration, including 1 rep-11
resentative from each of— 12
(A) the Climate Prediction Center; 13
(B) the National Centers for Environ-14
mental Information; 15
(C) the National Integrated Drought In-16
formation System; and 17
(D) the National Mesonet Program; 18
(3) 1 representative from the National Drought 19
Mitigation Center; 20
(4) 1 representative from the Department of 21
the Interior; 22
(5) 1 representative from the Cooperative Insti-23
tute for Research to Operations in Hydrology of the 24
University of Alabama; and 25
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(6) 3 representatives from mesonet programs in 1
States— 2
(A) that have experienced severe drought, 3
as determined by the United States Drought 4
Monitor, in not less than 5 calendar years dur-5
ing the period of calendar years 2012 through 6
2023; and 7
(B) more than 50 percent of the land area 8
of which is designated by the Economic Re-9
search Service as a Level 1 frontier and remote 10
area. 11
(c) D
UTIES.—The working group shall— 12
(1) develop a means for the inclusion of addi-13
tional in-situ data into the process of developing the 14
United States Drought Monitor, including— 15
(A) determining minimum requirements 16
for data to be included in the United States 17
Drought Monitor; 18
(B) identifying data available from other 19
government agencies, including through portals 20
managed by the National Oceanic and Atmos-21
pheric Administration; and 22
(C) identifying gaps in coverage and deter-23
mining solutions to address those gaps; 24
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(2) identify and address potential barriers to 1
the use of existing data, including— 2
(A) identifying Federal datasets that would 3
be of immediate use in developing the United 4
States Drought Monitor where access is re-5
stricted to some or all authors of the United 6
States Drought Monitor; and 7
(B) developing proposed accommodations, 8
modifications to contractual agreements, or up-9
dates to interagency memoranda of under-10
standing to allow for incorporation of datasets 11
identified under subparagraph (A); 12
(3) develop an open and transparent method-13
ology for vetting data products developed using re-14
mote sensing or modeling; 15
(4) if determined appropriate by the working 16
group, develop a methodology for inclusion of data 17
that may otherwise be excluded from the United 18
States Drought Monitor due to shorter periods of 19
record; and 20
(5) identify and address any other issues relat-21
ing to data availability and quality, as determined 22
appropriate by the Chair of the working group. 23
(d) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 24
of enactment of this Act, the working group shall submit 25
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a report containing recommendations for changes in poli-1
cies, regulations, guidance documents, or existing law to 2
meet the objectives described in subsection (c) to— 3
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture; 4
(2) the Secretary of Commerce; 5
(3) the Secretary of the Interior; 6
(4) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 7
and Forestry of the Senate; 8
(5) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 9
Transportation of the Senate; 10
(6) the Committee on Agriculture of the House 11
of Representatives; and 12
(7) the Committee on Science, Space, and 13
Technology of the House of Representatives. 14
(e) A
CTION BYSECRETARY.—Not later than 180 15
days after the date of submission of the report under sub-16
section (d), the Secretary of Agriculture, in coordination 17
with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the 18
Interior, shall incorporate, to the extent practicable, the 19
recommendations of the working group to improve the 20
United States Drought Monitor in accordance with section 21
12512 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (7 22
U.S.C. 5856). 23
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(f) TERMINATION.—The working group shall termi-1
nate on the date that is 90 days after the date on which 2
the report is submitted under subsection (d). 3
SEC. 6. ALIGNMENT OF FARM SERVICE AGENCY AND FOR-4
EST SERVICE DROUGHT RESPONSE. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 6
date of submission of the report under section 5(d), the 7
Administrator of the Farm Service Agency and the Chief 8
of the Forest Service shall enter into a memorandum of 9
understanding to better align drought response activities 10
of the Farm Service Agency and the Forest Service (re-11
ferred to in this section as the ‘‘agencies’’). 12
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The memorandum of understanding 13
entered into under subsection (a) shall include— 14
(1) a commitment to better align practices of 15
the agencies with respect to determining the severity 16
of regional drought conditions; 17
(2) a strategy for amending those determina-18
tions to ensure consistent policy with respect to 19
drought response in cases where the agencies are 20
making inconsistent determinations within the same 21
spatial scale; 22
(3) an agreement to utilize, to the extent prac-23
ticable, the United States Drought Monitor in mak-24
ing those determinations; and 25
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(4) an agreement to provide consistent informa-1
tion to grazing permittees, operators, and other 2
stakeholders affected by determinations relating to 3
drought. 4
Æ
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