[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7462 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7462
To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to direct the Secretary of
Agriculture to use certain data sets when determining eligibility
related to indemnity payments under the Hurricane Insurance Protection-
Wind Index endorsement, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 10, 2026
Mr. Carter of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Allen)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Agriculture
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to direct the Secretary of
Agriculture to use certain data sets when determining eligibility
related to indemnity payments under the Hurricane Insurance Protection-
Wind Index endorsement, 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 ``Farmers' Assistance and Immediate
Disaster Relief Act'' or the ``Farmers' AID Relief Act''.
SEC. 2. HURRICANE INSURANCE PROTECTION-WIND INDEX ENDORSEMENT.
(a) In General.--Section 508 of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7
U.S.C. 1508) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(q) Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index Endorsement.--
``(1) Determination of payment eligibility.--
``(A) In general.--Beginning with crop year 2027,
in determining whether a county is eligible with
respect to a hurricane weather event for an indemnity
payment under HIP-WI, the Secretary shall--
``(i) use the IBTrACS data set; or
``(ii) subject to subparagraph (B), use the
alternative data set compiled pursuant to
paragraph (2).
``(B) Condition for use of alternative data set.--
For purposes of subparagraph (A)(ii), the Secretary may
only use the alternative data set compiled pursuant to
paragraph (2) if--
``(i) the data set specified in
subparagraph (A)(i) is incomplete, as
determined by the Secretary; and
``(ii) one of the following conditions is
met:
``(I) A weather station operated by
National Weather Service in the county
subject to the determination of
eligibility in subparagraph (A), or an
adjacent county, was damaged.
``(II) Any other source of data for
making such determination in such
county or an adjacent county was
damaged.
``(III) Any such station or other
source provided incomplete data, as
determined by the Secretary.
``(2) Compilation of alternative data set.--For purposes of
determining eligibility under paragraph (1)(A)(ii), the
Secretary shall compile, and make available to the public on
the website of the Department related to HIP-WI, an alternative
data set for the hurricane weather event prompting such
determination using data that--
``(A) is collected for a specified time period
during such weather event, as determined by the
Secretary;
``(B) contains the same types of data contained in
the IBTrACS data set; and
``(C) is consistent with the form of such types of
data, as determined by the Secretary.
``(3) Definitions.--In this subsection:
``(A) HIP-WI.--The term `HIP-WI' means the
Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index endorsement
established in 2020 by the Risk Management Agency of
the Department.
``(B) IBTrACS data set.--The term `IBTrACS data
set' means the International Best Track Archive for
Climate Stewardship data set from the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, including the season,
name, time, location in latitude and longitude, maximum
sustained winds, hurricane category, and wind extents
data associated with a hurricane weather event.
``(C) Alternative data set.--The term `alternative
data set' means data collected by a weather station
that is--
``(i) operated by a land-grant college or
university (as defined in section 1404 of the
National Agricultural Research, Extension, and
Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3103));
and
``(ii) certified, at the time data is
collected for purposes of paragraph (2), as
compliant with standards issued by the National
Weather Service, including the standards
described in the directive issued on November
9, 2023, entitled `National Weather Service
Instruction 10-1302' (or successor
directives).''.
(b) Regulations.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall--
(1) issue such rules as may be necessary to implement the
amendment made by this section; and
(2) revise any guidance relating to the Hurricane Insurance
Protection-Wind Index endorsement established in 2020 by the
Risk Management Agency of the Department of Agriculture.
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