U.S. Senate Approves Federal Crop Insurance Reform Conference Report
- Report Includes New Monies To Fight Pierce’s Disease -
May 25, 2000

Washington, DC – The U.S. Senate today approved a joint Senate / House Conference Report of a bill that reforms the federal crop insurance program and provides a much greater level of protection to growers of specialty crops than what currently exists. The report also includes two new measures that will help California farmers fight exotic pests:

• an authorization of $7.1 million to the California Department of Food and Agriculture for state and local efforts to contain and control Pierce’s Disease; and

• a provision, originally sponsored by Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) and cosponsored by Senator Feinstein (D-Calif.), that enhances the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ability to regulate the interstate and foreign transport of plants and plant products.

“Exotic pests represent a significant threat to California agriculture,” Senator Feinstein said. “I am very pleased that the conferees were able to provide increased funding to help State and local agencies eradicate Pierce’s Disease and to provide USDA additional authority to protect our borders from foreign pests. These funds will go a long way to helping California farmers protect their crops from pests and disease in the future.”

“Unfortunately, this legislation does not provide compensation to growers who lost crops due to the quarantine in Fallbrook. I will continue to work on the appropriations committee to attempt to provide them assistance in the future.”

The crop insurance reform legislation, the Risk Management for the 21st Century Act, increases the share of crop insurance premiums paid by the federal government. The bill seeks to encourage more farmers to buy crop insurance instead of relying on disaster aid. It authorizes $5 billion over 5 years for the premium subsidy and allocates $1 billion for research and development, and it eliminates the requirement of an area-wide loss before disaster payments can be made to producers of currently non-insurable crops.