Agricultural Management Assistance Act of 2023

Bill: 118-s-795
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT]
Introduced: 2023-03-14
Policy area: Agriculture and Food
Latest action: action_date: 2023-03-14
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

Summaries:
action_date: 2023-03-14
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Agricultural Management Assistance Act of 2023 </b></p> <p>This bill expands and revises the Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA) programs, which help agricultural producers manage financial risk through diversification, marketing, or natural resource conservation practices. (AMA is available in 16 designated states where participation in the Federal Crop Insurance Program is historically low.) </p> <p>Specifically, the bill expands the eligible uses for financial assistance funds for producers to include soil health improvements, the development of sustainable water sources and irrigation, composting, and other conservation practices determined to reduce the risk to a farm of financial loss due to the regional impacts of climate change. The bill also specifies that funds provided to mitigate financial risk through production or marketing diversification may be used for food safety certification. </p> <p>The bill provides additional funding for the program and changes the payment limitation for farmers to $200,000 over five years (currently $50,000 per year). </p> <p>The bill also expands those eligible for assistance under AMA programs to include federal crop insurance providers, in particular providers of Whole-Farm Revenue Protection plans.</p>

tv_txt: II 118th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 795 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 14, 2023 Mr. Murphy (for himself, Ms. Collins , and Mr. King ) 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 improve education and risk management assistance, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Agricultural Management Assistance Act of 2023 . 2. Education and risk management assistance Section 524 of the Federal Crop Insurance Act ( 7 U.S.C. 1524 ) is amended— (1) in subsection (a)— (A) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking for the purpose of educating agricultural producers and providing technical assistance to agricultural producers and inserting for the purpose of educating and providing technical assistance to agricultural producers and approved crop insurance providers, including language translation services as appropriate, ; (B) in paragraph (3)— (i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking education, and outreach and inserting education, outreach, and language translation ; (ii) in subparagraph (E), by striking and at the end after the semicolon; (iii) by redesignating subparagraph (F) as subparagraph (G); and (iv) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the following: (F) Federal crop insurance providers, especially with respect to the whole farm diversified risk management insurance plan developed under section 522(c)(7); and ; and (C) in paragraph (4), by striking paragraph (3)(E) and inserting paragraph (3) with respect to the entities described in subparagraphs (E) and (F) of that paragraph ; and (2) in subsection (b)— (A) in paragraph (2)— (i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking subsection to— and inserting subsection— ; (ii) in each of subparagraphs (A) through (F), by inserting to before the first word of the subparagraph; (iii) in subparagraph (C)— (I) in the matter preceding clause (i), by striking production or marketing diversification or ; (II) in clause (ii), by inserting areawide before integrated ; (III) in clause (iii), by striking or at the end after the semicolon; and (IV) by striking clause (iv) and inserting the following: (iv) soil health improvements; (v) development of sustainable water sources and irrigation; (vi) perennial crop establishment, including establishment of agroforestry systems; (vii) integration of livestock; (viii) aerobic composting of crop and livestock waste; or (ix) other conservation practices determined by the Secretary to reduce the risk to a farm of financial loss due to the regional impacts of climate change; ; (iv) by redesignating subparagraphs (D) through (F) as subparagraphs (E) through (G), respectively; (v) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the following: (D) to mitigate financial risk through production or marketing diversification, including through— (i) developing or implementing a plan to create marketing opportunities for the producer, including through value-added processing; (ii) developing or implementing a plan to establish market infrastructure for the producer to support enterprise diversification, including drying and storage facilities for small grains from resource-conserving crop rotations; (iii) organic farming; and (iv) food safety certification; ; and (vi) in subparagraph (G) (as so redesignated), by striking (E) and inserting (F) ; (B) in paragraph (3)— (i) by striking The total amount and inserting the following: (A) In general Subject to subparagraph (B), the total amount ; (ii) in subparagraph (A) (as so designated), by striking for any year may not exceed $50,000 and inserting for any 5-year period may not exceed $200,000 ; and (iii) by adding at the end the following: (B) Exclusion of other Federal funds Any payments made to a person described in subparagraph (A) for carrying out activities described in paragraph (2) that are not made pursuant to this subsection shall not count for purposes of the payment limitation established under that subparagraph. ; (C) in paragraph (4)— (i) in subparagraph (B)— (I) in clause (i), by striking $10,000,000 and inserting $30,000,000 ; (II) by striking clause (ii); and (III) by striking the subparagraph designation and heading and all that follows through Except as provided in clause (ii), the in clause (i) and inserting the following: (B) Funding The ; and (ii) in subparagraph (C)— (I) in clause (ii), by striking to provide and inserting to carry out paragraph (2)(D), including providing ; and (II) in clause (iii), by striking (F) and inserting (G) ; and (D) by adding at the end the following: (5) Authorization of appropriations In addition to amounts made available under paragraph (4), there is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2023 and each fiscal year thereafter, to remain available until expended. .