Sponsors (11)
The bill provides targeted, sizable federal aid to specialty crop producers for quicker, better-matched disaster relief, but it shifts $5.0 billion in costs to taxpayers and risks uneven distribution or concentration of payments without strict limits or guidance.
Specialty crop producers (e.g., fruit, vegetable, nut growers) receive prompt cash payments after adverse events calculated from prior-year or multi-year sales times a payment factor, providing quick financial relief.
Payments are structured to account for specialty crops' higher market value and input costs, so aid is more likely to match actual losses for high-value specialty producers.
Creates a dedicated $5.0 billion fund (available until expended) to sustain assistance without immediate annual appropriation limits, giving USDA and producers a reliable funding source.
All taxpayers ultimately bear the $5.0 billion federal cost to fund the program, which may increase deficit pressures or crowd out other spending if not offset.
Payment limits and exemptions risk concentrating large payments to bigger farms or operations where most income is from farming, reducing equity for smaller or diversified producers.
Giving the Secretary discretion to define adverse events and set payment factors could create uncertainty, inconsistent application across regions, and uneven access to aid for similarly affected producers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a USDA specialty-crop emergency payment program and provides $5 billion for direct payments in FY2027.
Creates a new USDA emergency assistance program that pays specialty-crop producers direct emergency payments when they are harmed by adverse events such as economic crises or market disruptions. It sets a payment formula tied to prior-year (or multi-year average) sales, applies payment limits, and allows USDA to use Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) authority to run the program. Appropriates $5 billion to the Department of Agriculture for fiscal year 2027, available until expended, to fund these direct payments and requires USDA to set program details, eligibility rules, and payment caps consistent with existing commodity payment-limit rules while accounting for specialty crops' higher value and costs.
Official title: Amend the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 to establish a specialty crop emergency assistance framework, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 23, 2026 by Ben Ray Luján · Last progress June 23, 2026