HR 4354
Agricultural Emergency Relief Act of 2025
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Bill overview
The Agricultural Emergency Relief Act of 2025 aims to provide financial assistance to farmers who have experienced significant crop losses due to natural disasters. It establishes a program where eligible producers can apply for payments based on their qualified losses, which include drought, wildfires, floods, and other events. The program requires producers to purchase crop insurance in the following two crop years as a condition of receiving payments, and it uses a combination of indemnity-based and revenue-based calculations to determine the amount of assistance provided, with limits based on average adjusted gross farm income.
Key provisions
- Establishes a program to provide payments to farmers experiencing qualified crop losses due to disasters.
- Defines ‘disaster’ to include various natural events like drought, wildfires, and floods.
- Requires producers to purchase crop insurance (Federal Crop Insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program) for the two succeeding crop years.
- Uses a combination of indemnity-based and revenue-based calculations to determine payment amounts.
- Payment amounts are capped based on the producer’s average adjusted gross farm income.
- A special calculation is provided for wine grape producers.
- The program is administered simultaneously for both indemnity-based and revenue-based applications.
- The Act authorizes appropriations through 2030.
Who is affected
- Farmers and ranchers
- Agricultural producers
- Crop producers
- Forestry operations
Sponsors
Official sponsors from legislative records.
Primary sponsor
Cosponsors
Doug LaMalfa
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119th CONGRESS — 1st Session
H. R. 4354
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out a program to provide payments to producers experiencing certain crop losses as a result of a disaster.
This Act may be cited as the Agricultural Emergency Relief Act of 2025
.
In this Act:
The term average adjusted gross farm income, with respect to a producer, means the portion of the average adjusted gross income of the producer that is derived from farming, ranching, or forestry operations.
The term average adjusted gross income, with respect to a producer, means the adjusted gross income (as defined in section 62 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) of the producer, as averaged over the 3 taxable years preceding the most recently completed taxable year.
The term disaster includes—
excessive moisture;
For purposes of subparagraph (A)(i), a county shall be considered to have experienced a drought if any area within the county was rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as experiencing—
severe drought) for 8 or more consecutive weeks; or
extreme drought), or a higher level of drought intensity, during the applicable calendar year.
The term Federal Crop Insurance means any crop insurance program under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.).
The term Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program means the program under section 196 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7333).
The term producer means an individual or entity that is eligible to receive assistance under a disaster assistance program administered by the Farm Service Agency.
The term producer does not include—
a general partnership.
The term qualified loss means a loss in a crop, trees, bushes, or vines incurred by a producer as a consequence of a disaster.
The term qualified loss includes—
a loss in the quality of a crop, trees, bushes, or vines due to a disaster; and
The term Secretary means the Secretary of Agriculture.
The Secretary shall establish a program under which the Secretary shall provide payments during each crop year to producers that experienced a qualified loss during the crop year.
To be eligible to receive a payment under this section for a crop year, a producer shall submit to the Secretary an application, at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may require, including a description of each qualified loss incurred by the producer during the crop year.
The Secretary shall approve an application submitted by a producer under paragraph (1) if the application demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary that the producer has incurred a qualified loss during the applicable crop year.
The Secretary shall provide to each producer the application of whom is approved under subsection (b)(2) a payment for the applicable crop year, in accordance with subsection (d).
As a condition of receiving a payment under this section, a producer shall purchase, for each of the 2 succeeding crop years—
Subject to subsection (e), the amount of a payment provided to a producer under subsection (c)(1) shall be determined in accordance with—
to the maximum extent practicable, a calculation based on data relating to the producer for the applicable crop year that were previously submitted or known to the Secretary, including—
any indemnity of the producer under Federal Crop Insurance or payment received by the producer under the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program;
the level of coverage of the producer under—
an appropriate percentage factor, to be established by the Secretary, subject to the condition that the factor shall be not more than 90 percent; or
for a producer that did not purchase coverage under Federal Crop Insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, a calculation based on the revenue of the producer for the applicable crop year, as described in paragraph (2).
In this paragraph:
The term allowable gross revenue, with respect to a producer, means the reported revenue of the operations of the producer during a crop year, including from—
sales of eligible crops, as identified by the Secretary; or
sales resulting from value added in post-production activities.
The term benchmark year means a crop year in which a producer did not experience a qualified loss.
Subject to subparagraph (C), the revenue-based calculation referred to in paragraph (1)(B) shall take into account—
the allowable gross revenue of the applicable producer during a benchmark year;
the percentage of the allowable gross revenue described in clause (ii) derived from sales of specialty crops and high-value crops; and
an appropriate percentage factor, to be established by the Secretary, subject to the condition that the factor shall be not more than 70 percent.
For a producer of wine grapes that uses not less than 75 percent of the grapes to produce wine at a facility owned by the producer, a payment provided under this section shall be calculated based on the market rate for wine grapes at the time of calculation, in lieu of the revenue of the producer.
For each crop year—
a producer the average adjusted gross farm income of whom is less than 75 percent may receive payments under this section in an amount equal to not more than—
$125,000 for the specialty crops and high-value crops of the producer, as determined by the Secretary; and
$125,000 for the crops of the producer not described in subparagraph (A);
a producer the average adjusted gross farm income of whom is 75 percent or more may receive payments under this section in an amount equal to not more than—
$900,000 for the specialty crops and high-value crops of the producer, as determined by the Secretary; and
$250,000 for the crops of the producer not described in subparagraph (A); and
the total amount of all payments provided to a producer under this section shall be not more than, as applicable—
an amount equal to 90 percent of the qualified losses of the producer during the crop year, including any assistance provided under—
an amount equal to 70 percent of the qualified losses of the producer during the crop year, if the producer did not—
The Secretary shall administer the program under this section simultaneously for—
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2030.
Of the amounts made available under subsection (a) for each fiscal year, the Secretary may use not more than 1 percent to pay the administrative costs of the Secretary.