United States S 3479: Cover Crop Flexibility Act of 2020

Bill Text

II
116TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 3479
To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to encourage the planting of
cover crops following prevented planting, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 12, 2020
Mr. THUNE (for himself and Ms. STABENOW) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nu-
trition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to encourage
the planting of cover crops following prevented planting,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cover Crop Flexibility 4
Act of 2020’’. 5
SEC. 2. COVER CROPS PLANTED DUE TO PREVENTED 6
PLANTING. 7
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 508A of the Federal Crop 8
Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1508a) is amended— 9
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•S 3479 IS
(1) in subsection (c)— 1
(A) in paragraph (1)(B)(ii)— 2
(i) by striking ‘‘collect an indemnity’’ 3
and inserting the following: ‘‘collect— 4
‘‘(I) an indemnity’’; 5
(ii) in subclause (I) (as so des-6
ignated), by striking the period at the end 7
and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 8
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(II) an indemnity payment that 11
is equal to the prevented planting 12
guarantee for the acreage for the first 13
crop, if the second crop— 14
‘‘(aa) is an approved cover 15
crop that— 16
‘‘(AA) will be planted 17
for use as animal feed or 18
bedding that is hayed, 19
grazed (rotationally, adapt-20
ively, or at equal to or less 21
than the carrying capacity), 22
or chopped outside of the 23
primary nesting season; or 24
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•S 3479 IS
‘‘(BB) will not be har-1
vested, such as a crop with 2
an intended use of being left 3
standing or cover; and 4
‘‘(bb) cannot be harvested 5
for grain or other uses unrelated 6
to livestock forage or conserva-7
tion, as determined by the Cor-8
poration.’’; and 9
(B) in paragraph (3)— 10
(i) by inserting ‘‘a second crop de-11
scribed in item (aa) or (bb) of paragraph 12
(1)(B)(ii)(II), or’’ before ‘‘double crop-13
ping’’; and 14
(ii) by striking ‘‘make an election 15
under paragraph (1)(B)’’ and inserting 16
‘‘makes an election under paragraph 17
(1)(B)(ii)(I)’’; and 18
(2) by inserting at the end the following: 19
‘‘(f) PREVENTED PLANTING COVERAGE FACTORS.— 20
For producers that plant cover crops following prevented 21
planting, the Corporation may provide separate prevented 22
planting coverage factors that include preplanting costs, 23
the cost of cover crop seed, and the cost of fencing and 24
supplying water to livestock.’’. 25
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•S 3479 IS
(b) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.—Section 522(c) 1
of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)) is 2
amended by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(20) COVER CROPS.— 4
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Corporation shall 5
carry out research and development, or offer to 6
enter into one or more contracts with one or 7
more qualified persons to carry out research 8
and development, regarding a policy to insure 9
crops on fields that regularly utilize cover crops. 10
‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—Research and de-11
velopment under subparagraph (A) shall in-12
clude— 13
‘‘(i) a review of prevented planting 14
coverage factors described in section 15
508A(f) and an evaluation of whether to 16
include cover crop seed costs and costs re-17
lated to grazing in the calculation of a fac-18
tor; 19
‘‘(ii) the extent to which cover crops 20
reduce the risk of subsequent prevented 21
planting; 22
‘‘(iii) the extent to which cover crops 23
make crops more resilient to or otherwise 24
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•S 3479 IS
reduce the risk of loss resulting from nat-1
ural disasters such as drought; 2
‘‘(iv) the extent to which increased 3
regularity of using cover crops or inter-4
actions with other practices such as tillage 5
or rotation affects risk reduction; 6
‘‘(v) whether rotational, adaptive, or 7
other prescribed grazing of cover crops can 8
maintain or improve risk reduction; and 9
‘‘(vi) how best to account for any re-10
duced risk and provide a benefit to pro-11
ducers using cover crops through a sepa-12
rate plan or policy of insurance. 13
‘‘(C) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months 14
after the date of enactment of this paragraph, 15
the Corporation shall make available on the 16
website of the Corporation, and submit to the 17
Committee on Agriculture of the House of Rep-18
resenta