House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) recently released the title-by-title summary of the draft Farm Bill, which the committee plans to release this week and mark up next week. A key piece of legislation that PIA strongly supports and helped develop, the Ensuring Access to Risk Management Act of 2024 (H.R. 8055), is included in the House draft. The relevant provisions will reinstate an inflation adjustment applicable to the cap on Administrative and Operating Expenses (A&O) and establish a minimum A&O reimbursement rate for specialty crop insurance policies.

The bipartisan bill was introduced by Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) with Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Tracey Mann (R-KS) as original cosponsors. It would provide relief for crop insurance agents whose commissions have been effectively cut for the past several years. The bill became necessary when, in 2016, the USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) abruptly stopped adjusting agent compensation for inflation, functionally freezing compensation in 2016 dollars indefinitely. Since then, the RMA has refused to reinstate the inflation adjustment, arguing that it lacks the power to do so without renegotiating the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). The draft Farm Bill, like H.R. 8055, would require the RMA to reinstate an annual inflation adjustment and provide for specialty crop relief.

PIA has been leading the industry’s advocacy efforts to reinstate the inflation adjustment for the past several years. In late 2022, PIA and its allies successfully urged Congress to include in its appropriations package report language stating unequivocally that the RMA had the authority to reinstate the inflation adjustment without renegotiating the SRA. PIA’s efforts also included a dedicated crop insurance advocacy event, in which PIA crop agents from various states came to Capitol Hill to urge policymakers to include this provision. The package, with the key report language included, eventually became law. Unfortunately, such report language serves only as a recommendation to federal agencies; it does not itself have the power of law.

The RMA flouted Congress’s recommendation. Despite report language including this explicit Congressional declaration, the RMA has continued to insist that it does not have the legal authority to reinstate the inflation adjustment. On that basis, it has declined to act. In response, PIA helped to develop H.R. 8055 to encourage Congress to address the issue directly.

PIA will continue to advocate for these vital provisions to remain in the House Farm Bill ahead of a planned markup in committee and be included in any Senate version as the process to reauthorize the Farm Bill continues.