Crop Insurance for Future Farmers Act
Crop Insurance for Future Farmers Act
This bill amends the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) to increase the premium assistance rate for beginning and veteran farmers or ranchers. (FCIP offers subsidized crop insurance policies that producers can purchase to cover a wide variety of crops and livestock.)
Specifically, the bill amends the amount of percentage points that are added to the premium assistance rate for beginning farmers or ranchers and veteran farmers or ranchers for an applicable insurance policy or plan (currently 10 percentage points) to provide
- 15 percentage points in each of the 1st and 2nd reinsurance years,
- 13 percentage points in the 3rd year,
- 11 percentage points in the 4th year, and
- 10 percentage points in each of the 5th through the 10th reinsurance years.
Under the bill, farmers and ranchers, and veteran farmers and ranchers, are eligible to qualify for the program for 10 years, an increase from 5 years under current law. Specifically, to be considered a beginning farmer or rancher, a person must not have actively operated and managed a farm or ranch for more than 10 crop years. To be considered a veteran farmer or rancher, a veteran must have (1) not operated a farm or ranch for more than 10 crop years, or (2) first obtained veteran status in the past 10 years.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.