H.R. 3283 — FARMER Act

This section establishes premium support under the Federal Crop Insurance Program for revenue protection or yield protection plans of insurance, when elected on an enterprise unit or whole farm unit basis, at 77 percent of the premium for 75 percent coverage (from 55 percent under current law) and 68 percent for 80 percent coverage (from 48 percent under current law). (Enterprise units insure all of a producer's acres of the crop in a county as one unit; whole farm units insure expected revenue across all crops on the farm.)

This section modifies coverage level parameters for the supplemental coverage option (SCO)—an area-based endorsement available to Federal Crop Insurance Program participants with an underlying policy coverage level of at least 70% that indemnifies for county- or higher-level losses exceeding specified benchmarks—by (1) changing a value to 10 (from 14) in clause (ii) of section 508(c)(4)(C), and (2) increasing the benchmark threshold to 90% (from 86%) in clause (iii)(I); and increases the premium subsidy for SCO to 80% (from 65%) under section 508(e)(2)(H)(i). (Thus, the changes expand the subsidized scope of area coverage while enhancing the federal share of premiums.)

This section directs the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to conduct or contract for a study on the feasibility of modifying the supplemental coverage option (SCO)—which provides producers with area-based crop insurance (typically at the county level) in addition to individual policies—to cover counties larger than 1,400 square miles at levels smaller than county-wide but greater than individual coverage. The Corporation must submit a report on the study results and recommendations to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and the House Committee on Agriculture not later than one year after enactment.