[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3402 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3402

 To establish permanent authority for the Secretary of Agriculture to 
quickly assist agricultural producers who incur crop losses as a result 
of damaging weather or related condition in federally declared disaster 
    areas, to provide emergency disaster assistance to agricultural 
producers for qualifying crop losses for the 2001, 2002, or 2003 crops, 
 to continue the livestock assistance program, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 29, 2003

Mr. Peterson of Minnesota (for himself, Mr. Janklow, and Mr. McIntyre) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                              Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To establish permanent authority for the Secretary of Agriculture to 
quickly assist agricultural producers who incur crop losses as a result 
of damaging weather or related condition in federally declared disaster 
    areas, to provide emergency disaster assistance to agricultural 
producers for qualifying crop losses for the 2001, 2002, or 2003 crops, 
 to continue the livestock assistance program, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Permanent Emergency Agricultural 
Assistance Act''.

SEC. 2. CROP DISASTER ASSISTANCE FOR 2001, 2002, AND 2003 CROP LOSSES.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall make emergency 
financial assistance available to producers on a farm who have incurred 
qualifying crop losses for the 2001, 2002, or 2003 crop, or any 
combination of those crops, due to damaging weather or related 
condition, as determined by the Secretary.
    (b) Administration.--Except as provided in subsection (c), the 
Secretary shall make assistance available under this section in the 
same manner as provided under section 815 of the Agriculture, Rural 
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 2001 (Public Law 106-387; 114 Stat. 1549A-55), 
including using the same loss thresholds for the quantity and quality 
losses as were used in administering that section.
    (c) Payment Rates.--The Secretary shall make a disaster payment 
available to producers on a farm for a crop under this section at a 
rate equal to--
            (1) 40 percent of the established price for the crop for 
        any deficiency in production greater than 20 percent, but less 
        than 35 percent, for the crop; and
            (2) 65 percent of the established price for the crop for 
        any deficiency in production of 35 percent or more for the 
        crop.
    (d) Crop Insurance.--In carrying out this section, the Secretary 
shall not discriminate against or penalize producers on a farm that 
have purchased crop insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 
U.S.C. 1501 et seq.).
    (e) Other Assistance.--Subject to subsection (d), the amount of 
assistance that producers on a farm would otherwise receive under this 
section shall be reduced by the amount of assistance provided to the 
producers on the farm for crop losses described in subsection (a) under 
any other Federal law.

SEC. 3. CROP DISASTER ASSISTANCE FOR FUTURE CROP YEARS.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall make emergency 
financial assistance available to producers on a farm who incur 
qualifying crop losses for an insurable crop due to damaging weather or 
related condition, as determined by the Secretary, which results in the 
designation of the county in which the farm is located as a federally 
declared disaster area.
    (b) Administration.--Except as provided in subsections (c) and (d), 
the Secretary shall make assistance available under this section in the 
same manner as provided under section 815 of the Agriculture, Rural 
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 2001 (Public Law 106-387; 114 Stat. 1549A-55), 
including using the same loss thresholds for the quantity and quality 
losses as were used in administering that section.
    (c) Payment Rate.--Subject to subsection (e), the Secretary shall 
make assistance available to producers on a farm for a crop under this 
section at a rate equal to 65 percent of the established price for the 
crop for any deficiency in production of 35 percent or more for the 
crop.
    (d) Receipt Conditioned on Having Crop Insurance.--The producers on 
a farm shall not be eligible for assistance under subsection (a) with 
respect to losses to a crop unless the producers obtained, before the 
losses were incurred, a policy or plan of insurance for the crop under 
the Federal Crop Insurance Act that provided a level of coverage equal 
to or greater than 60 percent.
    (e) Payment Limitation.--
            (1) Limitation.--Assistance provided under subsection (a) 
        to a producer for losses to a crop, together with the amounts 
        specified in paragraph (2) applicable to the same crop, may not 
        exceed 95 percent of what the value of the crop would have been 
        in the absence of the losses, as estimated by the Secretary.
            (2) Other payments.--In applying the limitation in 
        paragraph (1), the Secretary shall include the following:
                    (A) Crop insurance payments made under the Federal 
                Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.) that the 
                producer receives for losses to the same crop.
                    (B) The value of the crop that was not lost (if 
                any), as estimated by the Secretary.
    (f) Definition.--In this section, the term ``federally declared 
disaster area'' is a county covered by a Presidential declaration of 
major disaster issued under section 301 of the Robert T. Stafford 
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) or 
determined to be a disaster area by the Secretary under subpart A of 
part 1945 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations. The term does not 
include a contiguous county.
    (g) Effective Date.--This section applies to crop years after the 
2003 crop year.

SEC. 4. LIVESTOCK ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall make and 
administer payments for livestock losses to producers for 2001, 2002, 
or 2003, or any combination of those years, in a county that has 
received a corresponding emergency designation by the President or the 
Secretary, of which an amount determined by the Secretary shall be made 
available for the American Indian livestock program under section 806 
of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, 
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001 (Public Law 106-387; 114 
Stat. 1549, 1549A-51).
    (b) Administration.--The Secretary shall make assistance available 
under this section in the same manner as provided under section 806 of 
the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and 
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001 (Public Law 106-387; 114 
Stat. 1549, 1549A-51).
    (c) Other Assistance.--The amount of assistance that a producer 
would otherwise receive under this section shall be reduced by the 
amount of assistance provided to the producer for losses described in 
subsection (a) under any other Federal law.

SEC. 5. FUNDING AND REIMBURSEMENT.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall use the funds 
of the Commodity Credit Corporation to carry out this Act.
    (b) Permanent Program.--There is hereby authorized to be 
appropriated such amounts as may be necessary to reimburse the 
Commodity Credit Corporation for funds expended by the Secretary under 
section 3.

SEC. 6. EMERGENCY DESIGNATIONS.

    (a) In General.--The amounts referred to in sections 2 and 4 are 
designated by Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 
502 of H. Con. Res. 95 (108th Congress), the concurrent resolution on 
the budget for fiscal year 2004.
    (b) Permanent Program.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
authorization of appropriations in section 5(b) to reimburse the 
Commodity Credit Corporation shall be treated as emergency spending. 
The allocation for a fiscal year otherwise made to the Committees on 
Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate pursuant 
to section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 shall be 
increased by the amount appropriated pursuant to such authorization of 
appropriations for the same fiscal year.

SEC. 7. REGULATIONS.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture may promulgate such 
regulations as are necessary to carry out this Act.
    (b) Procedure.--The promulgation of the regulations and 
administration of this Act shall be made without regard to--
            (1) the notice and comment provisions of section 553 of 
        title 5, United States Code;
            (2) the Statement of Policy of the Secretary of Agriculture 
        effective July 24, 1971 (36 Fed. Reg. 13804), relating to 
        notices of proposed rulemaking and public participation in 
        rulemaking; and
            (3) chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code (commonly 
        known as the ``Paperwork Reduction Act'').
    (c) Congressional Review of Agency Rulemaking.--In carrying out 
this section, the Secretary shall use the authority provided under 
section 808 of title 5, United States Code.
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