Sponsors (21)
The bill offers specialty-crop growers a new index-based frost/cold insurance promising faster, more objective payouts and better federal study, at the trade-off of potential basis risk for individual farms and higher administrative costs that could raise premiums or taxpayer burden.
Farmers who grow the listed specialty crops gain access to a new frost/cold insurance option (production or revenue), improving financial resilience against weather-driven losses.
A national, index-based insurance product would use objective triggers to speed payouts and reduce claims disputes, helping affected growers recover faster after frost/cold events.
The law requires research and a report to Congress within one year, increasing federal oversight and creating the potential for evidence-based policy improvements.
Some individual farms may receive payments that do not match their actual losses (basis risk) because index triggers don't perfectly reflect on-farm damage, leaving growers under- or over-compensated.
Developing and administering a new national index-based policy could raise administrative costs that are passed on to taxpayers or increase premiums for farmers.
The one-year deadline for research and reporting may be too short for thorough development and evaluation, risking incomplete analysis and premature policy recommendations or rollout decisions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs FCIC to research and develop an index-based national frost/cold crop insurance policy for specialty crops and report results to agriculture committees within one year.
Official title: To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to direct the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to conduct research and development on frost or cold weather insurance, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 10, 2026 by Scott Franklin · Last progress February 10, 2026
Directs the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) to research and/or contract research to design a nationally available, index-based frost or cold-weather crop insurance product for covered crops (including tomatoes, peppers, sugarcane, strawberries, melons, citrus, peaches, blueberries, and others). The research must evaluate index-based risk management for low-frequency and catastrophic cold events and produce a policy that covers at least production loss or revenue loss. Requires the FCIC to submit a report of research results and recommendations to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees within one year of enactment. The bill contains no appropriation or program start-up funding and does not itself change eligibility rules beyond directing the research and product development effort.