2020 WHIP+ Reauthorization Act

IB Union Calendar No. 89 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 267 [Report No. 117–124] To extend the wildfire and hurricane indemnity program to cover certain crop losses in calendar year 2020, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 11, 2021 Mr. THOMPSON of California (for himself, Mr. PANETTA, Ms. LEE of Cali- fornia, Mr. DEFAZIO, and Mr. NEWHOUSE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 Additional sponsors: Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. HARDER of California, Mrs. AXNE, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. COSTA, Mr. ARRINGTON, Mr. HIGGINS of Lou- isiana, Mr. CUELLAR, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. SCHRIER, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. FEENSTRA, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mrs. HINSON, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mr. SCHRA- DER, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. BOST, Mrs. BUSTOS, Mr. ROGERS of Alabama, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mrs. MILLER- MEEKS, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. MOORE of Utah, Mrs. RODGERS of Wash- ington, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. COLE, Mr. MOORE of Alabama, Mr. PALAZZO, Mr. KILMER, Mr. RUSH, Mr. ROUZER, Ms. SPANBERGER, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. VICENTE GONZALEZ of Texas, Mr. AMODEI, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. CARL, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota, Mr. BERA, Mrs. NAPOLI- TANO, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. WESTERMAN, Ms. STRICKLAND, Mr. OWENS, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. SWALWELL, Mr. LAMALFA, and Ms. BROWNLEY VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 267 RH SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] [For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 11, 2021] A BILL To extend the wildfire and hurricane indemnity program to cover certain crop losses in calendar year 2020, and for other purposes. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 267 RH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘2020 WHIP+ Reauthor- 4 ization Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. DISASTER INDEMNITY PROGRAM. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise provided in 7 this section, with respect to the coverage period, the Sec- 8 retary shall carry out— 9 (1) a disaster indemnity program in the same 10 manner as the WHIP+ program is carried out under 11 subpart O of part 760 of title 7, Code of Federal Reg- 12 ulations (as in effect on the date of the enactment of 13 this section); 14 (2) an on-farm storage loss program in the same 15 manner as the program carried out under subpart P 16 of part 760 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (as 17 in effect on the date of the enactment of this section); 18 and 19 (3) a milk loss program in the same manner as 20 the program carried out under subpart Q of part 760 21 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on 22 the date of the enactment of this section). 23 (b) COVERED LOSSES.—In carrying out the programs 24 under this section, the Secretary shall make payments to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 267 RH producers in accordance with subsection (c) for qualified 1 losses of covered crops, including milk, that occurred during 2 the coverage period. 3 (c) PAYMENTS.— 4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Payments to producers for 5 qualified losses of covered crops, including milk, 6 under the programs under this section shall be ad- 7 ministered, except as provided in paragraph (2), in 8 the same manner as payments under the relevant pro- 9 grams in subsection (a). 10 (2) EXCEPTIONS.— 11 (A) DIRECT PAYMENTS REQUIRED.—The 12 Secretary shall make payments under the pro- 13 grams under paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of sub- 14 section (a) as direct payments to producers or 15 processors, at the election of the processor. 16 (B) SPECIAL RULE FOR UNHARVESTED 17 ACRES.—The Secretary shall make payments 18 under this section with respect to qualified losses 19 of unharvested acres of a covered crop in the 20 same manner as payments are made with respect 21 to eligible crop losses under the noninsured crop 22 assistance program under section 196 of the Fed- 23 eral Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 24 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7333). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 267 RH (C) PAYMENT LIMITATIONS.— 1 (i) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided 2 in clauses (ii), (iii), (iv), and (v), the Sec- 3 retary shall impose payment limitations 4 consistent with section 760.1507 of title 7, 5 Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on 6 the date of the enactment of this section). 7 (ii) EXCEPTION FOR SPECIALTY CROPS 8 OR HIGH VALUE CROPS.—In the case of spe- 9 cialty crops or high value crops, as deter- 10 mined by the Secretary, the Secretary shall 11 impose payment limitations consistent with 12 section 760.1507(a)(2) of title 7, Code of 13 Federal Regulations (as in effect on Janu- 14 ary 1, 2019). 15 (iii) TAX YEAR BASIS.—In applying 16 the payment limitations under this sub- 17 paragraph, the Secretary shall determine a 18 person or legal entity’s average adjusted 19 gross income and average adjusted gross 20 farm income based on the 2017, 2018, and 21 2019 tax years. 22 (iv) ANNUAL RENEWAL.—With respect 23 to the payment limitations described under 24 this subparagraph, the Secretary shall 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 267 RH apply separate payment limits for each of 1 the years under the covered period. 2 (v) ENTITY RULES.—With respect to 3 payments to a corporation, limited liability 4 company, limited partnership, trust, or es- 5 tate under this section, the Secretary 6 shall— 7 (I) determine average adjusted 8 gross income and average adjusted 9 gross farm income in accordance with 10 clause (iii); and 11 (II) apply rules in the same man- 12 ner as subsections (d) and (e) of section 13 9.7 of title 7, Code of Federal Regula- 14 tions. 15 (D) NET INDEMNITIES.—In calculating 16 payments under the programs under paragraphs 17 (1), (2), and (3) of subsection (a), the Secretary 18 shall net out crop insurance indemnities, less 19 any insurance premiums paid by the producer. 20 (E) PAYMENTS TO SUGAR AND DAIRY PROC- 21 ESSORS.— 22 (i) IN GENERAL.—At the election of a 23 processor eligible for a loan under section 24 156 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 267 RH and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7272) or 1 a cooperative processor of dairy, in lieu of 2 payments to producers provided under a 3 program described in subsection (a), the 4 Secretary shall make payments to a proc- 5 essor to be paid to producer members, as de- 6 termined by such processors under the same 7 terms and conditions as payments made to 8 processors pursuant to section 791(c) of title 9 VII of division B of the Further Consoli- 10 dated Appropriations Act, 2020 (Public 11 Law 116–94). 12 (ii) NON-ELECTION.—Notwithstanding 13 section 760.1503(j) of title 7 of the Code of 14 Federal Regulations, in the event that a 15 processor described in clause (i) does not 16 elect to receive payments under such clause, 17 the Secretary shall make direct payments to 18 producers under a program described in 19 subsection (a). 20 (F) BLOCK GRANTS.—The Secretary may 21 provide payments in the form of block grants to 22 States and processors described in subparagraph 23 (E). 24 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 267 RH (1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be ap- 1 propriated to carry out this section $8,500,000,000. 2 (2) ADMINISTRATION.—The Secretary may use 3 not more than 1 percent of the funds appropriated 4 pursuant to paragraph (1) to carry out the following: 5 (A) Streamlining the application process. 6 (B) Utilizing information technology to en- 7 able the electronic transfer of data used in such 8 application process between the Risk Manage- 9 ment Agency and the Farm Service Agency. 10 (C) Activities that with respect to county of- 11 fice employees, reduce the workload of such em- 12 ployees in carrying out this section. 13 (D) To the maximum extent practicable, 14 providing the necessary information to, and as- 15 sisting crop insurance agents with, providing 16 application information on behalf of insured 17 producers. 18 (e) EXEMPTION.—Notwithstanding the Federal Fund- 19 ing Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Public 20 Law 109–282; 31 U.S.C. 6101 note), the requirements of 21 parts 25 and 170 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations 22 (or successor regulations), shall not apply with respect to 23 assistance received under this section. 24 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 267 RH (1) COVERAGE PERIOD.—In this section, the 1 term ‘‘coverage period’’ means, with respect to a cov- 2 ered crop, including milk, and a qualifying disaster 3 event described in paragraph (6)(A)(i), calendar 4 years 2020 and 2021. 5 (2) COVERED CROP.—The term ‘‘covered crop’’ 6 means a crop, tree, bush, or vine described in section 7 760.1503 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (as 8 in effect on the date of the enactment of this section), 9 including wine grapes, which shall include all insured 10 acreage (regardless of whether such acreage is the ini- 11 tial acreage or not). 12 (3) MILK LOSS PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘milk loss 13 program’’ means the milk loss program under subpart 14 Q of part 760 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations 15 (as in effect on the date of the enactment of this sec- 16 tion). 17 (4) ON-FARM STORAGE LOSS PROGRAM.—The 18 term ‘‘on-farm storage loss program’’ means the on- 19 farm storage loss program under subpart P of part 20 760 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (as in ef- 21 fect on the date of the enactment of this section) 22 (5) STATE.—In this section, the term ‘‘State’’ 23 has the meaning given the term in section 1111(20) 24 of the Agricultural Act of 2014. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 267 RH (6) QUALIFIED LOSS.—The term ‘‘qualified 1 loss’’— 2 (A) with respect to a covered crop not de- 3 scribed in subparagraph (B), the loss of such 4 crop during the coverage period— 5 (i) due to a qualifying disaster event 6 described in the definition of ‘‘qualifying 7 disaster event’’ in section 760.1802 of title 8 7, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect 9 on the date of the enactment of this section); 10 (ii) due to high winds, derechos, exces- 11 sive heat, or freeze (including a polar vor- 12 tex); 13 (iii) due to a drought in— 14 (I) a county the Secretary des- 15 ignated for drought; or 16 (II) a county contiguous to a 17 county described in subclause (I); or 18 (iv) due to other disruptions (including 19 power outages or curtailments) that are as- 20 sociated with the effects of a qualified dis- 21 aster event under this section; and 22 (B) with respect to smoke tainted wine 23 grapes, the loss (including a quality loss) of such 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 267 RH crop during the coverage period due to wildfire, 1 as determined by the Secretary. 2 (7) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 3 the Secretary of Agriculture. 4 (8) WHIP+ PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘WHIP+ pro- 5 gram’’ means the WHIP+ program under subpart O 6 of part 760 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (as 7 in effect on the date of the enactment of this section). 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS Union Calendar No. 89 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 267 [Report No. 117–124] A BILL To extend the wildfire and hurricane indemnity program to cover certain crop losses in calendar year 2020, and for other purposes. SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com- mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Sep 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H267.RH H267 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS