A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to consider certain acreage not planted due to a lack of irrigation water to be eligible for prevented planting payments, and for other purposes.

This bill would require the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Farm Service Agency, to treat certain farm acres as "prevented from planting" when farmers did not plant them because they reasonably expected a shortage of irrigation water. To qualify, the acres must have working irrigation equipment, must have been irrigated and planted with the same crop in at least one of the previous 4 crop years, and must not be able to support that crop without irrigation. Payments for these acres would be cut by 50 percent for the fifth through eighth consecutive years, by 75 percent for the ninth and tenth years, and by 100 percent starting in the eleventh year, after which the acres would be permanently ineligible. The bill would also change federal rules so that drought at the source of an irrigation supply counts as a drought condition, and would require the Commodity Credit Corporation to consult county and state committees when determining natural disasters.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Michael F. Bennet Democrat sponsor
• 0 cosponsors