[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 357 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 357

To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to establish a pilot program in 
     certain States to provide improved crop insurance options for 
                               producers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            February 3, 1999

   Mr. Grams introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to establish a pilot program in 
     certain States to provide improved crop insurance options for 
                               producers.

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

SECTION 1. PILOT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE IMPROVED CROP INSURANCE OPTIONS FOR 
              PRODUCERS.

    The Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.) is amended 
by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 522. PILOT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE IMPROVED CROP INSURANCE OPTIONS 
              FOR PRODUCERS.

    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Commodity.--The term `commodity' means winter wheat, 
        spring wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, and soybeans.
            ``(2) Eligible state.--The term `eligible State' means each 
        of the States of California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 
        Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and 
        Texas.
    ``(b) Pilot Program.--The Corporation shall establish a pilot 
program under which the Corporation shall offer producers of a 
commodity in an eligible State the option to elect plans of insurance 
under this Act under which--
            ``(1) the Corporation will provide a premium subsidy of 31 
        percent for each level of coverage from 65 percent to 85 
        percent, in increments of 1 percent, involving a 100 percent 
        price election; and
            ``(2) insurance is provided, at the election of the insured 
        producer, on the basis of a whole farm unit or 1 unit for each 
        crop, with the option to obtain insurance on combined acreage 
        in eligible States, regardless of State or county boundaries 
        within eligible States, to achieve maximum enterprise unit 
        discounts;
            ``(3) the insured price is based, at the election of the 
        insured producer, on--
                    ``(A) a market price, as determined by the Risk 
                Management Agency; or
                    ``(B) a price determined on the appropriate futures 
                exchange;
            ``(4) a loss is indemnified by the Corporation when the 
        actual production of an insured commodity for a crop year is 
        less than the guarantee for the commodity for the crop year 
        established using actual production history procedures; and
            ``(5) the yield for a crop shall be determined in 
        accordance with section 508(g), except that, if a crop was 
        produced on a farm during each of the 5 actual production 
        history crop years immediately preceding the crop year for 
        which actual production history is being established, a 
        producer may elect to have 1 crop year excluded from the 
        production data base.
    ``(c) Report.--Not later than 90 days after the termination of the 
pilot program under subsection (d)(2), the Corporation shall submit to 
the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate a 
report that describes the results of the pilot program.
    ``(d) Duration.--The pilot program established under this section 
shall--
            ``(1) apply commencing with the 2000 crop of each commodity 
        of a State covered by the pilot program; and
            ``(2) terminate 3 years after the date of commencement of 
        the program.''.
                                 <all>