[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S1706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. PADILLA (for himself and Mr. Tillis):
  S. 984. A bill to amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to establish an 
exception to certain payment limitations in the case of person or legal 
entity that derives income from agriculture, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the bipartisan Fair 
Access to Agriculture Disaster Programs Act. This legislation would 
ensure all farmers can access critical U.S. Department of Agriculture 
disaster relief programs.
  Increasingly frequent and catastrophic floods, fires, freezes, and 
other disasters are threatening the long-term sustainability of 
agriculture across the country.
  The impact has been particularly acute for California's agricultural 
communities, who face year-round threats from drought, heat, floods, 
and fires--even in January.
  The farm bill authorizes safety net programs to help producers 
recover, but outdated adjusted gross income, AGI, limits exclude many 
specialty crop growers, despite facing the same extreme weather 
challenges as other farmers.
  As a result, producers from California to North Carolina are blocked 
from vital disaster assistance.
  The Fair Access to Agriculture Disaster Programs Act adopts 
flexibility used in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program to waive 
the AGI limitation for producers that derive 75 percent of their AGI 
from farming, ranching, or related farming practices.
  What are referred to as specialty crops are just that--special. 
Specialty crops, which include fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried 
fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops that are cultivated for food 
and medicine, require overall higher input costs and specialized 
processes for planting, growing, and harvesting.
  Did you know that it costs more than $30,000 to produce an acre of 
strawberries? The cost of production for specialty crops is typically 
thousands of dollars per acre.
  As a result, both large and small producers of specialty crops end up 
exceeding the AGI limitations put in place to means-test critical 
disaster assistance.
  That is why we need to pass the Fair Access to Agriculture Disaster 
Programs Act to ensure farmers and ranchers can access agricultural 
safety net programs in the wake of increasingly more frequent and 
catastrophic disasters.
  I would like to thank Senator Tillis for joining me to introduce this 
bill, and I forward to working with my colleagues to pass the Fair 
Access to Agriculture Disaster Programs Act as quickly as possible.
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