II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 357

To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to establish a pilot program

in certain States to provide improved crop insurance options for producers.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

FEBRUARY 3, 1999

Mr. GRAMS 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 a

pilot program in certain States to provide improved crop

insurance options for producers.

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

3 SECTION 1. PILOT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE IMPROVED CROP

4 INSURANCE OPTIONS FOR PRODUCERS.

5 The Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et

6 seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

7 ‘‘SEC. 522. PILOT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE IMPROVED CROP

8 INSURANCE OPTIONS FOR PRODUCERS.

9 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
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1 ‘‘(1) COMMODITY.—The term ‘commodity’

2 means winter wheat, spring wheat, corn, grain sor3 ghum, barley, and soybeans.

4 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE STATE.—The term ‘eligible

5 State’ means each of the States of California, Illi6 nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota,

7 Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas.

8 ‘‘(b) PILOT PROGRAM.—The Corporation shall estab9 lish a pilot program under which the Corporation shall

10 offer producers of a commodity in an eligible State the

11 option to elect plans of insurance under this Act under

12 which—

13 ‘‘(1) the Corporation will provide a premium

14 subsidy of 31 percent for each level of coverage from

15 65 percent to 85 percent, in increments of 1 percent,

16 involving a 100 percent price election; and

17 ‘‘(2) insurance is provided, at the election of the

18 insured producer, on the basis of a whole farm unit

19 or 1 unit for each crop, with the option to obtain in20 surance on combined acreage in eligible States, re21 gardless of State or county boundaries within eligi22 ble States, to achieve maximum enterprise unit dis23 counts;

24 ‘‘(3) the insured price is based, at the election

25 of the insured producer, on—
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1 ‘‘(A) a market price, as determined by the

2 Risk Management Agency; or

3 ‘‘(B) a price determined on the appropriate

4 futures exchange;

5 ‘‘(4) a loss is indemnified by the Corporation

6 when the actual production of an insured commodity

7 for a crop year is less than the guarantee for the

8 commodity for the crop year established using actual

9 production history procedures; and

10 ‘‘(5) the yield for a crop shall be determined in

11 accordance with section 508(g), except that, if a

12 crop was produced on a farm during each of the 5

13 actual production history crop years immediately

14 preceding the crop year for which actual production

15 history is being established, a producer may elect to

16 have 1 crop year excluded from the production data

17 base.

18 ‘‘(c) REPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the ter19 mination of the pilot program under subsection (d)(2), the

20 Corporation shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture

21 of the House of Representatives and the Committee on

22 Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate a re23 port that describes the results of the pilot program.

24 ‘‘(d) DURATION.—The pilot program established

25 under this section shall—
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1 ‘‘(1) apply commencing with the 2000 crop of

2 each commodity of a State covered by the pilot pro3 gram; and

4 ‘‘(2) terminate 3 years after the date of com5 mencement of the program.’’.

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