[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4203 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4203
To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program to
provide emergency relief to producers that experienced losses as a
result of disasters occurring in 2023, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 30, 2024
Mr. Marshall introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program to
provide emergency relief to producers that experienced losses as a
result of disasters occurring in 2023, 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 ``Agricultural Emergency Relief Act of
2024''.
SEC. 2. EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture (referred to in this
section as the ``Secretary'') shall carry out a program under which the
Secretary shall provide payments to producers that experienced losses
of crops (including milk, on-farm stored commodities, crops prevented
from planting in 2023, and harvested adulterated wine grapes), trees,
bushes, and vines, as a consequence of droughts, wildfires, hurricanes,
floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze,
including a polar vortex, smoke exposure, quality losses of crops,
excessive moisture, and other similar causes of loss occurring in
calendar year 2023.
(b) Terms and Conditions.--Except as otherwise provided in this
section, the Secretary shall carry out the program required under
subsection (a) under the same terms and conditions provided under Phase
1 of the Emergency Relief Program in effect for 2020 and 2021 and first
announced in the notification of funding availability published by the
Department of Agriculture entitled ``Notice of Funds Availability;
Emergency Relief Program (ERP)'' (87 Fed. Reg. 30164 (May 18, 2022)).
(c) Treatment of Certain Losses.--The Secretary shall provide
payments to producers under the program required under subsection (a)
in a manner consistent with subsection (b) in the case of--
(1) quality losses;
(2) losses for which a producer did not have coverage
under--
(A) a policy or plan of insurance under the Federal
Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.); or
(B) the noninsured crop disaster assistance program
established under section 196 of the Federal
Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7
U.S.C. 7333);
(3) losses for which a producer did not receive an
indemnity or payment under--
(A) a policy or plan of insurance under the Federal
Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.); or
(B) the noninsured crop disaster assistance program
established under section 196 of the Federal
Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7
U.S.C. 7333); and
(4) types of losses of crops covered under Phase 2 of the
Emergency Relief Program established under subpart S of part
760 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on
the date of enactment of this Act).
(d) Additional Terms and Conditions.--The Secretary shall carry out
the program required under subsection (a) in accordance with the first
and third through twelfth provisos under the heading ``office of the
secretary'' under the heading ``Processing, Research and Marketing''
under the heading ``AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMS'' in title I of the Disaster
Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022 (division B of Public Law
117-43; 135 Stat. 356), as those provisos were implemented for 2020 and
2021, except that--
(1) the amount available under the third proviso shall be
determined pursuant to subsection (f); and
(2) each reference to 2020 or 2021 in those provisos shall
be deemed to be a reference to 2023.
(e) Other Requirements.--
(1) Payment eligibility and amount.--In determining
eligibility for a payment under the program required under
subsection (a), including the amount of that payment, the
Secretary shall only consider--
(A) the losses described in subsection (a);
(B) indemnities received and premiums paid under a
policy or plan of insurance under the Federal Crop
Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.); and
(C) financial assistance received and fees paid
under the noninsured crop disaster assistance program
established under section 196 of the Federal
Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7
U.S.C. 7333).
(2) Payment limitations or reductions.--The Secretary shall
not impose any limitation on or reduction in payments to a
producer that is not authorized by this section.
(f) Funding.--There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as
are necessary to carry out this section, to remain available until
expended.
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