Ensuring Disaster Recovery and Resilience for Specialty Crops Act

Key Points

• This bill creates a permanent framework for the federal government to provide direct financial assistance to specialty crop farmers after disasters, economic crises, or market disruptions. Currently, these farmers often have to wait for Congress to pass one-off emergency aid packages.
• Payments would be calculated based on a farmer's sales in the year before the disaster or an average of sales over several prior years, multiplied by a payment factor set by the Secretary of Agriculture based on available funding.
• The program recognizes that specialty crops like fruits, vegetables, and nuts cost more to grow and are worth more than commodity crops like corn or wheat. The Secretary must also account for the different types of business structures specialty crop producers use.
• Farmers who earn at least 75% of their income from farming, ranching, or forestry can receive at least $500,000 in payments per crop year, offering a higher safety net for full-time farming operations after major losses.
• Introduced by Senators Schiff and Padilla of California, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. It amends the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 to add this new section.