[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 790 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 790

    To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to ensure the continued 
availability of affordable crop insurance for producers whose farms are 
  located in counties designated as Federal disaster areas because of 
                      weather-related conditions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 13, 1997

 Mr. Pomeroy introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                        Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to ensure the continued 
availability of affordable crop insurance for producers whose farms are 
  located in counties designated as Federal disaster areas because of 
                      weather-related conditions.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Crop Insurance Improvement Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. EFFECT OF DISASTER DECLARATION ON AVAILABILITY OF AFFORDABLE 
              CROP INSURANCE.

    (a) Definition of Designated Disaster Area.--Section 502(b) of the 
Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1502(b)) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (6), (7), and (8) as 
        paragraphs (7), (8), and (9), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following new 
        paragraph:
            ``(6) Designated disaster area.--The term `designated 
        disaster area' means an area--
                    ``(A) covered by a Presidential declaration of 
                major disaster issued under section 401 of the Robert 
                T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 
                Act (42 U.S.C. 5170); or
                    ``(B) determined to be a disaster area by the 
                Secretary under subpart A of part 1945 of title 7, Code 
                of Federal Regulations.''.
    (b) Classification of Applicants Into Risk Categories.--Section 
506(o)(3) of such Act (7 U.S.C. 1506(o)(3)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new sentence: ``In the case of a producer operating 
in a county included in a designated disaster area declared as a result 
of damaging weather, or operating in a county adjacent to the 
designated disaster area, the Corporation may not include the producer 
in the nonstandard classification list on the basis of crop losses 
resulting from either the damaging weather that was the basis for the 
declaration or conditions related to the damaging weather.''.
    (c) Yield Determinations.--Section 508(g) of such Act (7 U.S.C. 
1508(g)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) Exclusion of certain crop years.--In establishing the 
        actual production history of a producer for a crop under 
        paragraph (2)(A) or using the producer's actual production 
        records for any other purpose under this subsection, the 
        Corporation shall exclude a crop year of the crop if, at any 
        time during the crop year, the county in which the crop was 
        grown (or an adjacent county) was included in a designated 
        disaster area declared as a result of damaging weather.''.
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