Jimmy Panetta was elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and currently represents California’s 19th district. Prior to his career in Congress, Rep. Panetta served as an intelligence officer for the United States Navy and was awarded the Bronze Star after a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2007. Rep. Panetta earned his J.D. from Santa Clara University and served as deputy district attorney for the District Attorney’s office of Monterey County, California. Rep. Panetta is the son of Leon Panetta, who served in several senior government positions including Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, and White House Chief of Staff.
Why He’s Important to Agents:
Rep. Panetta is an original cosponsor and the original Democratic cosponsor of H.R. 8055, the Ensuring Access to Risk Management Act of 2024. This significant piece of legislation 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) 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. The key provisions of this bill were included in the Farm Bill that passed the House Agriculture Committee this spring.
Rep. Panetta also serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over PIA Policy Priorities including the 20 percent tax deduction for qualifying S corporations.
PIA will continue to work with Rep. Panetta to provide much needed relief to crop insurance agents by reinstating an annual inflation adjustment.