Whole Farm Crop Insurance Improvement Act of 2018

Whole Farm Crop Insurance Improvement Act of 2018

This bill modifies requirements for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) crop insurance policy, which covers all commodities on a farm under a single policy.

The bill requires USDA to:

• expand coverage for beginning farmers under the Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program to allow the farmers to develop the revenue history necessary to qualify for WFRP;
• allow insurance providers to use alternative compensation structures based on the time necessary to write and administer the plans;
• ensure that that all producers, including producers with expected revenue from an operation that is greater than 35% of the revenue for the previous year, are able to obtain coverage; and
• reduce paperwork requirements for the program.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5825 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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.''.
                                 <all>