A PIA top priority was introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives to reinstate an inflation adjustment for crop insurance agents, as well as to provide relief for specialty crops. The bipartisan Ensuring Access to Risk Management Act of 2024 (H.R. 8055) was introduced by Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) with original cosponsors Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Tracey Mann (R-KS).

The bill seeks to provide relief for crop insurance agents who have had their commissions effectively cut for the past several years, ever since the USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) abruptly stopped providing an inflation adjustment to crop agent compensation in 2016. The legislation would require the RMA to reinstate an annual inflation adjustment and provide for specialty crop relief.

Background

The 2011 Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA), which is the contract between the federal government and crop insurers, establishes a cap on the administrative and operating (A&O) expense subsidy, a pool of funds from which crop insurers pay agent commissions. Then, beginning in 2016, the RMA stopped making annual adjustments to the total A&O subsidy cap for inflation, leaving the cap fixed in 2015 dollars, where it remains today. These actions resulted in effective cuts to crop insurance agent commissions, during a historically challenging time for agents.

In late 2022, PIA and its allies successfully advocated for the inclusion of language in an appropriations package, which was ultimately signed into law, stating Congress’ belief that the RMA has the legal authority to reinstate the inflation adjustment without renegotiating the SRA. Despite this explicit Congressional declaration, the RMA insists that it does not have the legal authority to reinstate the inflation adjustment and has declined to act. As a result, this bill was developed to address the issue directly.