Opinion ID: 493940
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Eligibility for Mandatory Disaster Payments for Prevented Planting Losses

Text: 11 First, and of foremost importance to our conclusion, we believe that the Secretary's interpretation of the term available in subsection (C) of sections 1444d(b)(2) and 1445b-1(b)(2) misconstrues Congress' primary purpose in conditioning the disbursement of mandatory disaster payments upon a farmer's inability to obtain crop insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act. This purpose was to encourage as many farmers as possible to buy all-risk crop insurance. Although Congress proceeded to phase out the disaster payments program to encourage the purchase of this crop insurance, the 1981 Agriculture Act's legislative history shows that Congress did not intend to terminate disaster payments where it would not encourage crop insurance purchases, or to end federal relief for losses due to preplanting disasters. The all-risk crop insurance covered crops. The government never offered these farmers a form of insurance that applied to no crop, that is, where no crop could be planted because of a preplanting disaster. It follows, therefore, that Congress did not intend to make ineligible for mandatory disaster payments those farmers experiencing prevented planting losses with access only to all-risk crop insurance. 3 12 In the 1980 amendments to the Federal Crop Insurance Act, Congress authorized the sale of subsidized all-risk crop insurance in all agricultural counties and for all important agricultural commodities. In offering more comprehensive insurance to more farmers, Congress hoped to reduce its expenditures for mandatory disaster payments. H.R.Rep. No. 430, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 11 (1979). The success of the expanded crop insurance program depended, however, upon a greater degree of farmer participation in the program than the program had previously received. Id. To increase participation levels, Congress decided to withdraw what it concluded was a major disincentive to farmers' purchase of all-risk crop insurance--free mandatory disaster payments. Id. That Congress' purpose in phasing out the mandatory disaster payments program was solely to achieve such an end is demonstrated by the Report of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee on the 1981 Agriculture Act. The Report states, 13 The continuation of the disaster payments program without change, as some parties advocate, would detract from the number of farmers who otherwise would purchase Federal all-risk crop insurance. Participation levels among wheat and upland cotton producers, particularly, would remain low, and premiums would climb inasmuch as the risk of loss could not be spread among a sufficiently broad-based body of participants. 14 S.Rep. No. 126, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. 76 (1981), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1981, pp. 1965, 2041. Earlier, in the Report of the House Agricultural Committee on the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980, Congress similarly stated that survival of the new crop insurance program depended upon greater participation in the federal crop insurance program, which, in turn, demanded the imposition of new restrictions on the eligibility for mandatory disaster payments. This Report states,Many farmers have not participated in the Federal crop insurance program in the past because they were aware of other Federal assistance programs which are free. Of primary importance are the disaster payments program on six major commodities.    However, in 1981, the first year of operation of the new insurance program, the disaster payments would not be available in a county on a crop where the new program has been implemented. This phaseout of the disaster assistance program is considered necessary for the proper functioning and acceptance of the new Federal crop insurance program. 15 H.Rep. No. 430, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 13 (1979). 16 In view of these expressions of congressional purpose, the scope of Congress' phase-out of the disaster payments program must be tailored to Congress' specific goal of increasing participation in the crop insurance program. Accordingly, it would not be within that intent for Congress to phase out mandatory disaster payments for preplanting disasters. Although rendering farmers ineligible for such payments for losses due to post-planting natural disasters would encourage purchase of the all-risk crop insurance covering this risk, rendering farmers ineligible for such payments for losses due to preplanting disasters would not encourage purchase of the all-risk crop insurance for the simple reason that all-risk crop insurance neither covers this risk nor can be obtained for a crop prior to planting. See 7 U.S.C. Sec. 1508; 7 C.F.R. Sec. 401.111 (1985). Thus considering Congress' purpose in inserting subsection (C) in the mandatory disaster payments provisions, it cannot be logically maintained that Congress intended to disqualify farmers subject to preplanting disasters from mandatory disaster payments along with farmers subject to disasters subsequent to planting, even though both groups might have access to all-risk crop insurance. 17 Second, there is no indication, in either the language or legislative history of the 1981 Agriculture Act, that in requiring greater reliance on the crop insurance program as a means of disaster assistance, Congress intended the result of the Secretary's interpretation--to stop providing assistance for prevented planting losses. Such an intent would be contrary to Congress' consistent reauthorization of mandatory disaster payments for prevented planting losses for the last decade. Mandatory disaster payments for preplanting disasters were first authorized for crop years 1971 through 1977 by the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973. 4 Congress reauthorized these payments for the 1978 and 1979 crop years in the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977. 5 The Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980 authorized disaster payments for prevented planting losses for 1981, 6 and the 1981 Agriculture Act did the same for crop years 1982 through 1985. 7 Contrary to expressing an intent to abandon this record of assistance for losses traditionally covered by mandatory disaster payments, in the 1981 Agriculture Act's legislative history, Congress emphasized the crop insurance program's capacity to provide greater disaster assistance than the mandatory disaster payments program. 8 18 Third, depending upon how widely all-risk crop insurance is offered for sale, the Secretary's interpretation either yields an inequitable distribution of mandatory disaster payments among farmers experiencing prevented planting losses, or renders the statutory provision providing for such payments surplusage. During the time of the 1981 Agriculture Act's validity when all-risk crop insurance was not offered for sale in all agricultural counties for all important agricultural commodities, 9 under the Secretary's interpretation, farmers' eligibility for mandatory disaster payments depended solely upon whether the insurance was offered for sale in their particular county. This is because those farmers living in counties where crop insurance is available would not qualify for disaster payments, but farmers in counties where said crop insurance is unavailable could collect mandatory disaster payments. We do not believe such an intent should be attributed to Congress under the statute here in question. 19 Finally, the Secretary's interpretation of available was expressly rejected by Congress prior to enactment of the 1981 Agriculture Act. Prior to Conference, the House amended the Senate Bill to add language similar to the Secretary's interpretation. As explained by the Conference Committee, The House amendment makes disaster payments available to [wheat and feed grain] producers of the 1982 through 1985 crops in any county in which Federal subsidized crop insurance is not generally offered for that crop prior to planting. H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 97-377, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. 159 (wheat), 164 (feed grain) (1981). That language, not included in the legislation, would track the Secretary's present interpretation--that a farmer is not eligible for disaster payments if crop insurance is generally available in his county, regardless of whether that insurance covers the risk that caused his crop losses. This House amendment, the Conference Report states, was rejected in favor of the language found in the enacted legislation. Id. The Conference's rejection of a provision parroting the Secretary's interpretation is good evidence that the Secretary's interpretation was contrary to Congress' intent.