II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1776 

To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to establish permanent authority 

for the Secretary of Agriculture to quickly provide disaster relief to 

agricultural producers that incur crop losses as a result of damaging 

weather or related condition in federally declared disaster areas, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 

Mr. DAYTON 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 establish permanent authority for the Secretary of Agriculture to 

quickly provide disaster relief to agricultural producers 

that incur crop losses as a result of damaging weather 

or related condition in federally declared disaster areas, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Permanent Emergency 

5 Agricultural Assistance Act’’. 
2 

•S 1776 IS

1 SEC. 2. CROP DISASTER ASSISTANCE FOR FUTURE CROP 

2 YEARS. 

3 The Federal Crop Insurance Act is amended by in4 serting after section 518 (7 U.S.C. 1518) the following: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 519. PERMANENT AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE EMER6 GENCY AGRICULTURAL ASSISTANCE. 

7 ‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF FEDERALLY DECLARED DIS8 ASTER AREA.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In this section, the term 

10 ‘federally declared disaster area’ means a county 

11 covered by— 

12 ‘‘(A) a Presidential declaration of major 

13 disaster issued under section 401 of the Robert 

14 T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency As15 sistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170); or 

16 ‘‘(B) a declaration by the Secretary of a 

17 disaster area under subpart A of part 1945 of 

18 title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (or suc19 cessor regulations). 

20 ‘‘(2) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘federally declared 

21 disaster area’ does not include a county contiguous 

22 to a county covered by a declaration described in 

23 paragraph (1) unless the contiguous county is also 

24 covered by the same designation. 

25 ‘‘(b) AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE EMERGENCY ASSIST26 ANCE.—The Secretary shall use the funds of the Com-
3 

•S 1776 IS

1 modity Credit Corporation to make emergency financial 

2 assistance available to producers on a farm that incur 

3 qualifying crop losses for an insurable crop due to dam4 aging weather or related condition, as determined by the 

5 Secretary, that results in the designation of the county 

6 in which the farm is located as a federally declared dis7 aster area. 

8 ‘‘(c) ADMINISTRATION.—Except as provided in sub9 sections (d) and (e), the Secretary shall make assistance 

10 available under this section in the same manner as pro11 vided under section 815 of the Agriculture, Rural Develop12 ment, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agen13 cies Appropriations Act, 2001 (Public Law 106–387; 114 

14 Stat. 1549A–55), including using the same loss thresholds 

15 for the quantity and quality losses as were used in admin16 istering that section. 

17 ‘‘(d) PAYMENT RATE.—The Secretary shall make as18 sistance available to producers on a farm for a crop under 

19 this section at a rate equal to 65 percent of the established 

20 price for the crop for any deficiency in production of 35 

21 percent or more for the crop. 

22 ‘‘(e) RECEIPT CONDITIONED ON HAVING CROP IN23 SURANCE.—The producers on a farm shall not be eligible 

24 for assistance under subsection (a) with respect to losses 

25 to a crop unless the producers obtained, before the losses 
4 

•S 1776 IS

1 were incurred, a policy or plan of insurance for the crop 

2 under this title that provided a level of coverage equal to 

3 or greater than 60 percent. 

4 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

5 is authorized to be appropriated such amounts as are nec6 essary to reimburse the Commodity Credit Corporation for 

7 funds expended by the Secretary under this section. 

8 ‘‘(g) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section applies to the 

9 2005 and subsequent crop years.’’. 

Æ