Livestock and Honey Bee Disaster Assistance Act of 2017

Livestock and Honey Bee Disaster Assistance Act of 2017

This bill amends the Agricultural Act of 2014 to remove the $20 million annual limit on mandatory funding for emergency assistance under the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP). The bill also removes a provision that permits funds provided under ELAP to remain available until expended.

(ELAP provides financial assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees and farm-raised fish for losses due to disease, certain adverse weather events, or loss conditions, including blizzards and wildfires.)

The bill amends the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 to specify that the maximum cost-share percentage permitted under the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) is 90% for an area that has been identified by the U.S. Drought Monitor as experiencing extreme or exceptional drought.

(The ECP provides emergency funding and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters and implement emergency conservation measures in periods of severe drought.)

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2190 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2190

To amend the Agricultural Act of 2014 to remove a limitation on funding 
  for emergency assistance for livestock, honey bees, and farm-raised 
                     fish, and for other purposes.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            December 4, 2017

 Ms. Heitkamp introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Agricultural Act of 2014 to remove a limitation on funding 
  for emergency assistance for livestock, honey bees, and farm-raised 
                     fish, 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 ``Livestock and Honey Bee Disaster 
Assistance Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FOR LIVESTOCK, HONEY BEES, AND FARM-RAISED 
              FISH.

    Section 1501(d) of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (7 U.S.C. 9081(d)) 
is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``not more than 
        $20,000,000'' and inserting ``such sums as are necessary''; and
            (2) by striking paragraph (3).

SEC. 3. COST-SHARE PAYMENTS UNDER EMERGENCY CONSERVATION PROGRAM DURING 
              EXTREME DROUGHT.

    The Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 is amended by inserting after 
section 403 (16 U.S.C. 2203) the following:

``SEC. 403A. COST-SHARE PAYMENTS UNDER EMERGENCY CONSERVATION PROGRAM 
              DURING EXTREME DROUGHT.

    ``The maximum cost-share percentage under section 701.126(a) of 
title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regulations), shall 
be 90 percent in the case of an area that has been identified by the 
United States Drought Monitor as experiencing extreme or exceptional 
drought.''.
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