​USA Rice - Farm Bill Summary - House Chairman’s Mark 4/12/2018
Title I - Commodities
Subtitle A
  • Producers on a farm will be given a new opportunity to elect between ARC and PLC on a commodity by commodity basis.    
  • Establishes “escalator” for reference prices under PLC which could rise with market prices, not to exceed 115 percent of current reference price.   
  • Base acres on a farm not planted to a covered commodity between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2017 will be treated as unassigned base acres upon which no payment shall be made.   
  • A producer on a farm is allowed to update yields for ARC and PLC purposes if the farm is located in a county that experienced at least 20 weeks of D-4 drought between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2012.  90 percent of the average of the yield per planted acres for a crop for the 2013 through 2017 crop years shall be used under an update.      
  • Requires separate calculation of actual crop revenue and agriculture risk guarantee for irrigated and non-irrigated crops under ARC; requires RMA yield data to be used under ARC; and requires that a farm receive the ARC payment determined for the county in which the farm is physically located.     
 
Subtitle B - Marketing Assistance Loans and Loan Deficiency Payments
  • Makes recourse loans available to crops that are ineligible for a nonrecourse loan due to contamination when the crop is still merchantable.   
 
Subtitle F - Administration  
  • Expands definition of family for actively engaged purposes, etc. to first cousins, nieces, and nephews.    
  • Qualified pass through entities are treated as general partnerships and joint ventures are today (no limit applied to the entity but instead to the individuals within the entity).
  • AGI test is applied to individual or entity, depending on where taxable revenue is recognized.  Allows Secretary to waive AGI test if it would protect environmentally sensitive land. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Title II – Conservation
 
  • Increases outlays by over $600 million in the first five years, though the ten-year score shows outlays of $800 million less
  • Includes SAM/DUNS fix to both NRCS and FSA
  • Increases CRP acreage cap to 29 million acres while allowing more grazing opportunities and reforming the program to keep costs down
  • Merges CSP into EQIP while keeping CSP functionally distinct and boosts spending for the program to $3.0 billion by 2023
  • Restores funding to the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program to $500 million per year while also streamlining and providing more flexibility for producers and stakeholders
  • Simplifies application process, program administration and funding mechanism while adding additional flexibility to the innovative and popular Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
  • Emphasizes protection of sources of drinking water building support from "downstream" water users while decreasing the threat of regulatory solutions.
  • Provides the private sector additional opportunities through the Technical Service Provider Program and allows more innovation through the CIG program
  • Reinstitutes AGI waiver for projects of special environmental significance
  • Provides $500 million for infrastructure programs (PL-566 and Small Watershed Rehab)
 
 
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
 
  • Increases cap to 25 million in FY19, 26 million in FY2020, 27 million in 2021, 28 million in 2022, 29 million in 2023.
  • Decreases cap for the Farmable Wetland Program from 750,000 to 500,000 acres
  • Requires Secretary to annually determine rental rates
  • Caps annual rental payments to 80% of county rental rate
  • The Secretary may consider the impact on the local farm land rental market when determining rental rates
  • Allows for a one-time early out
  • Allows all CRP participants to begin EQIP practices one year before the date of the termination of the CRP contract
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) merger with Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
 
  • Funds new merged EQIP and CSP program at $2 billion in FY19, $2.5 billion in FY20, $2.75 billion in FY21, $2.95 billion in FY22 and and $3.0 billion in 2023
  • In new merged program, CSP is replaced with stewardship contracts
  • Authorizes the Secretary to identify priority resource concerns within a State
  • Stewardship contracts are to provide incentives to producers to attain increased conservation stewardship, adopt and install stewardship practices to address priority resource concern, and require management and maintenance of stewardship practices
  • Stewardship contract terms shall be no less than five years and no more than 10 years
  • No more than 50% of the merged funds may be used for stewardship contracts
 
 
Remainder of EQIP
 
  • Eliminates 60% livestock carve-out
  • Allows precision conservation management planning under CAPs
  • Retains 5% wildlife carve-out that would apply to the much larger funding for a combined program
  • Makes irrigation districts and irrigation associations eligible for EQIP
 
 
Regional Conservation Partnership Program
 
  • Reauthorizes and funds RCPP at $250 million per year in mandatory funding and repeals the 7% donor program funding. (Important because 7% will no longer come from ACEP but sponsors have access to $250 million a year for ACEP activities).
  • Adds emphasis to quantifying and reporting outcomes and authorizes the Secretary to offer guidance to partners on how to quantify and report on environmental outcomes
  • Calls for a simplified application process
  • Adds the authorities of CRP and PL-566 to covered programs
  • Adds protection of source water for drinking water as an eligible activity
  • Allows longer agreements to allow more complex projects that may take longer such as PL-566 projects
  • Allows for an expedited program application process for renewals of previous projects that are performing well
  • Allows for payments limits to be waived along with the current waiver for AGI to allow for large, innovative and complex projects
  • Allows PL-566 authorities to be used for the entire country not just Critical Conservation Areas.
 
 
 
 
Administration, Technical Assistance, & Other Provisions
  • Provides emphasis for protection of sources of drinking water in all conservation programs
  • Authorizes the Secretary to offer additional incentives for practices that result in significant environmental benefits and benefits occur primarily “downstream”
  • Defines Third-Party Provider
  • Provides alternative certification process
  • Authorizes a Feral Swine and Eradication and Control Pilot Project and authorizes $100 million in mandatory funding
  • Authorizes funding for the Wetland Mitigation Banking Program
  • Authorizes $100 million per year for funding for the Small Watershed Rehabilitation Program and PL-566 for fiscal years 2019-2023
 
 
Title V - Credit
  • FSA individual producer ownership and operating loan limits are increased to $1,750,000.  
 
Title XI - Crop Insurance
No substantial changes    
  • Increases CAT fee from $300 to $500.
  • Prohibits producers who elect ARC from also buying SCO, margin coverage, or area yield and loss coverage.  
  • Works to address concerns about reimbursement of private R&D costs under section 508(h).  
  • Defines beginning farmer or rancher for purposes of whole farm insurance as one who has not actively operated or managed a farm or ranch with a bona fide insurable interest in a crop or livestock as an owner-operator, landlord, tenant, or sharecropper for more than 10 crop years.
  • Requires R&D on insurance products that work better to insure against hurricanes and other low frequency, catastrophic loss weather events, including for peppers, tomatoes, and citrus.    
  • Requires R&D to determine whether there are alternative methods of adjusting for quality loss that does not impact APHs.