H.R. 441 — Drought Assistance Improvement Act

This section revises drought eligibility thresholds in the Livestock Forage Disaster Program by lowering the consecutive weeks requirement during the normal grazing period for the county from at least 8 weeks to not less than 4 weeks for 1 monthly payment (using the monthly payment rate under the program's formula) and increasing payments to 2 monthly payments (from 1) for not less than 8 consecutive weeks. (The program provides financial assistance to eligible livestock producers for grazing losses due to qualifying drought or fire.)

This section amends documentation standards under the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP)—which provides Commodity Credit Corporation payments to eligible producers for livestock, honey bee, and farm-raised fish losses exceeding normal mortality—as follows: (1) inserting "drought" after "adverse weather" in paragraph (1); (2) inserting "adverse weather or drought" after "disease" in paragraph (2); (3) further inserting in paragraph (2) "and loss of crawfish harvest due to adverse weather or drought" after "cattle tick fever"; and (4) adding paragraph (5) to require the Secretary, in consultation with eligible farm-raised fish producers, to establish standards for collecting data, crawfish production related to harvest reductions, and defining drought loss conditions.