Cover Crop Flexibility Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3479 To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to encourage the planting of cover crops following prevented planting, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 12, 2020 Mr. THUNE (for himself and Ms. STABENOW) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nu- trition, and Forestry A BILL To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to encourage the planting of cover crops following prevented planting, and for other purposes. 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 ‘‘Cover Crop Flexibility 4 Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. COVER CROPS PLANTED DUE TO PREVENTED 6 PLANTING. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 508A of the Federal Crop 8 Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1508a) is amended— 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3479.IS S3479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3479 IS (1) in subsection (c)— 1 (A) in paragraph (1)(B)(ii)— 2 (i) by striking ‘‘collect an indemnity’’ 3 and inserting the following: ‘‘collect— 4 ‘‘(I) an indemnity’’; 5 (ii) in subclause (I) (as so des- 6 ignated), by striking the period at the end 7 and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 8 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 9 lowing: 10 ‘‘(II) an indemnity payment that 11 is equal to the prevented planting 12 guarantee for the acreage for the first 13 crop, if the second crop— 14 ‘‘(aa) is an approved cover 15 crop that— 16 ‘‘(AA) will be planted 17 for use as animal feed or 18 bedding that is hayed, 19 grazed (rotationally, adapt- 20 ively, or at equal to or less 21 than the carrying capacity), 22 or chopped outside of the 23 primary nesting season; or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3479.IS S3479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3479 IS ‘‘(BB) will not be har- 1 vested, such as a crop with 2 an intended use of being left 3 standing or cover; and 4 ‘‘(bb) cannot be harvested 5 for grain or other uses unrelated 6 to livestock forage or conserva- 7 tion, as determined by the Cor- 8 poration.’’; and 9 (B) in paragraph (3)— 10 (i) by inserting ‘‘a second crop de- 11 scribed in item (aa) or (bb) of paragraph 12 (1)(B)(ii)(II), or’’ before ‘‘double crop- 13 ping’’; and 14 (ii) by striking ‘‘make an election 15 under paragraph (1)(B)’’ and inserting 16 ‘‘makes an election under paragraph 17 (1)(B)(ii)(I)’’; and 18 (2) by inserting at the end the following: 19 ‘‘(f) PREVENTED PLANTING COVERAGE FACTORS.— 20 For producers that plant cover crops following prevented 21 planting, the Corporation may provide separate prevented 22 planting coverage factors that include preplanting costs, 23 the cost of cover crop seed, and the cost of fencing and 24 supplying water to livestock.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3479.IS S3479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3479 IS (b) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.—Section 522(c) 1 of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)) is 2 amended by adding at the end the following: 3 ‘‘(20) COVER CROPS.— 4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Corporation shall 5 carry out research and development, or offer to 6 enter into one or more contracts with one or 7 more qualified persons to carry out research 8 and development, regarding a policy to insure 9 crops on fields that regularly utilize cover crops. 10 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—Research and de- 11 velopment under subparagraph (A) shall in- 12 clude— 13 ‘‘(i) a review of prevented planting 14 coverage factors described in section 15 508A(f) and an evaluation of whether to 16 include cover crop seed costs and costs re- 17 lated to grazing in the calculation of a fac- 18 tor; 19 ‘‘(ii) the extent to which cover crops 20 reduce the risk of subsequent prevented 21 planting; 22 ‘‘(iii) the extent to which cover crops 23 make crops more resilient to or otherwise 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3479.IS S3479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3479 IS reduce the risk of loss resulting from nat- 1 ural disasters such as drought; 2 ‘‘(iv) the extent to which increased 3 regularity of using cover crops or inter- 4 actions with other practices such as tillage 5 or rotation affects risk reduction; 6 ‘‘(v) whether rotational, adaptive, or 7 other prescribed grazing of cover crops can 8 maintain or improve risk reduction; and 9 ‘‘(vi) how best to account for any re- 10 duced risk and provide a benefit to pro- 11 ducers using cover crops through a sepa- 12 rate plan or policy of insurance. 13 ‘‘(C) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months 14 after the date of enactment of this paragraph, 15 the Corporation shall make available on the 16 website of the Corporation, and submit to the 17 Committee on Agriculture of the House of Rep- 18 resentatives and the Committee on Agriculture, 19 Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate, a report 20 that— 21 ‘‘(i) describes the results of the re- 22 search and development carried out under 23 subparagraph (A); and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3479.IS S3479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 3479 IS ‘‘(ii) includes any recommendations 1 with respect to those results.’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Mar 21, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3479.IS S3479 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS