Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that amends the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, repeals direct payments to farmers, and amends crop insurance programs.

Highlights:

• Establishes a minimum payment threshold of $10 or more per year for home energy assistance that must be met or exceeded in order for the household to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), whereas existing law specified that households receiving any amount of home energy assistance are eligible for the SNAP program (Sec. 4003).

• Prohibits the continuation of SNAP benefits to households in which a member receives “substantial” lottery or gambling winnings (Sec. 4005).

• Limits the eligibility of college students for SNAP benefits to individuals participating in the following study programs or courses (Sec. 4004):
• Career or technical education; or
• Remedial courses, basic adult education, literacy, or English as a second language.

• Appropriates $80 million for employment and training programs for SNAP recipients in fiscal year 2018 and each fiscal year thereafter, whereas existing law appropriates $90 million for each fiscal year (Sec. 4013).

• Repeals direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, and the Average Crop Revenue Election program to producers on farms of wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, long and medium grain rice, soybeans, “other” oilseeds, and peanuts (Secs. 1101-1103).

• Authorizes farmers to purchase additional crop insurance coverage from the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation through the Supplemental Coverage Option based on either of the following, beginning no later than the 2014 crop year (Sec. 11001):
• An individual or area yield and loss basis; or
• An individual yield and loss basis supplemented with coverage based on an area yield and loss basis to cover part of the deductible under the individual yield and loss insurance plan policy.

• Authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to pay crop insurance premiums for the 2014 through 2018 crop years if the revenue from the crop is less than the “agriculture risk coverage guarantee” for that crop (Sec. 1108).

• Defines “agriculture risk coverage guarantee” as 88 percent of an amount equal to the product of the following (Sec. 1108):
• The average yield of the crop for the most recent 5 crop years, excluding the 2 crop years with the highest and lowest yields; and
• The average price of the crop for the most recent 5 crop years, excluding the 2 crop years with the highest and lowest prices.

• Requires farmers for the 2014 through 2018 crop years to maintain “sound agricultural practices” by meeting the following requirements prior to receiving agricultural risk coverage payments (Sec. 1109):
• Comply with applicable conservation requirements;
• Comply with applicable “wetland protection” requirements;
• Control “noxious weeds”; and
• Use the farmland for agricultural or conservation purposes. 

• Limits the amount of optional additional disaster assistance provided to producers of noninsured crops to no more than 65 percent of individual yields, whereas existing law did not specify a limit (Sec. 12204). 

• Prohibits an individual or legal entity with an adjusted gross income exceeding $750,000 from receiving any of the following federal benefits (Sec. 1605):
• Agricultural risk coverage;
• Marketing loan gains or loan deficiency payments;
• Disaster assistance; or
• Payments made through the Noninsured Crop Assistance Program.

• Reduces crop insurance premium subsidies beginning in the 2014 reinsurance year for agricultural producers with adjusted gross incomes of $750,000 or more as follows (Sec. 11033):
• From 100 percent of the premium for catastrophic risk protection to 85 percent; and
• For crop insurance premiums based on the following percentages of average crop yields, the subsidy is reduced as follows:
• From 67 to 52 percent of the premium for yields between 50 and 55 percent;
• From 64 to 49 percent of the premium for yields between 55 and 65 percent;
• From 59 to 44 percent of the premium for yields between 65 and 75 percent;
• From 55 to 40 percent of the premium for yields between 75 and 80 percent;
• From 48 to 33 percent of the premium for yields between 80 and 85 percent; and
• From 38 to 23 percent of the premium for yields that exceed 85 percent.

• Requires the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to enter into a contract with a qualified entity to conduct research and development regarding a policy to insure producers against reduction in the margin between the market value of catfish and selected costs incurred in the production of catfish (Sec. 11022).

• Requires the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to reconcile the social security numbers of all individuals who receive payments under this act with the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration at least twice a year to determine if the individuals are still living (Sec. 1608).

• Extends the requirement that the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture purchase at least $50 million per year of fresh fruits and vegetables for distribution to schools from 2012 to 2018 (Sec. 4201).

• Requires the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to establish the Dairy Production Margin Protection Program which makes payments to participating dairy producers whenever the average actual dairy producer margin for a consecutive 2 month period is less than $4 per hundredweight of milk, and authorizes dairy producers to annually purchase supplemental margin protection (Secs. 1411, 1414 & 1415).

• Requires the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to establish the Dairy Market Stabilization Program applicable to participating dairy producers participating in the Dairy Production Margin Protection Program which reduces margin protection payments when the dairy market is oversupplied and when dairy producers are experiencing low or negative operating margins (Sec. 1431).

• Repeals the Dairy Product Price Support Program, the Milk Income Loss Contract Program, and the Dairy Export Incentive Program, and extends the Federal Milk Marketing Order Review Commission (Secs. 1471, 1472 & 1476).

• Establishes new crop insurance protection plans for producers of upland cotton and peanuts (Secs. 11013 & 11014).

• Establishes economic adjustment assistance at a rate of $.03 per pound for domestic users of upland cotton (Sec. 1207).

• Establishes a competitiveness payment program for domestic users and exporters of extra-long staple cotton produced in the United States whenever the following occurs (Sec. 1208):
• The price of extra-long staple cotton produced in the United States exceeds the world market price; and
• The lowest priced competing growth of extra-long staple cotton is less than 134 percent of the loan rate for extra-long staple cotton.

• Extends the requirement that the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture make loans available to sugar cane and sugar beet farmers at the following rates for the 2014 through 2018 crop years (Sec. 1301):
• 18.75 cents per pound for raw sugar cane; and
• 128.5 percent of the loan rate per pound for raw sugar cane.

• Increases the minimum amount that may be used to assist certain countries in increasing farm production and farmer incomes to an amount not less than the greater of $10 million or 0.6 percent of the funds appropriated to the John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program (Sec. 3014).

• Prohibits payments for foreign food assistance to North Korea unless the President determines that such assistance is in the national interest of the United States (Sec. 3015).

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text