Fruit and Vegetable Planting Flexibility Act of 2017

Fruit and Vegetable Planting Flexibility Act of 2017

This bill amends the Agricultural Act of 2014 to modify the effect that planting fruits, vegetables, or wild rice on a farm has on the acreage eligible for payments under Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity programs.

Under current law, payments acres on a farm must be reduced by specified amounts in any year in which fruits, vegetables (other than mung beans and pulse crops), or wild rice have been planted on base acres on the farm.

For each year in which there is a reduction in payment acres on a farm due to the planting of fruits, vegetables, or wild rice on base acres, the bill requires USDA to maintain the commodity program eligibility of those base acres by considering the acres to be planted or prevented from planting to a covered commodity when USDA recalculates the base acres for the farm under the commodity programs.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2263 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2263

To amend the Agricultural Act of 2014 to require base acres planted to 
fruits, vegetables, and wild rice to be considered planted to a covered 
       commodity for purposes of any recalculation of base acres.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 21, 2017

Mr. Donnelly (for himself and Mr. Young) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, 
                        Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Agricultural Act of 2014 to require base acres planted to 
fruits, vegetables, and wild rice to be considered planted to a covered 
       commodity for purposes of any recalculation of base acres.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fruit and Vegetable Planting 
Flexibility Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. EFFECT OF PLANTING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

    Section 1114 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (7 U.S.C. 9014) is 
amended by striking subsection (e) and inserting the following:
    ``(e) Effect of Planting Fruits and Vegetables.--
            ``(1) Reduction required.--In the manner provided in this 
        subsection, payment acres on a farm shall be reduced in any 
        crop year in which fruits, vegetables (other than mung beans 
        and pulse crops), or wild rice have been planted on base acres 
        on a farm.
            ``(2) Price loss coverage and county coverage.--In the case 
        of price loss coverage payments and agricultural risk coverage 
        payments using county coverage, the reduction under paragraph 
        (1) shall be the amount equal to the base acres planted to 
        crops referred to in that paragraph in excess of 15 percent of 
        base acres.
            ``(3) Individual coverage.--In the case of agricultural 
        risk coverage payments using individual coverage, the reduction 
        under paragraph (1) shall be the amount equal to the base acres 
        planted to crops referred to in that paragraph in excess of 35 
        percent of base acres.
            ``(4) Reduction exceptions.--No reduction to payment acres 
        shall be made under this subsection if--
                    ``(A) cover crops or crops described in paragraph 
                (1) are grown solely for conservation purposes and not 
                harvested for use or sale, as determined by the 
                Secretary; or
                    ``(B) in any region in which there is a history of 
                double-cropping covered commodities with crops 
                described in paragraph (1), those crops were so double-
                cropped on the base acres, as determined by the 
                Secretary.
            ``(5) Recalculation of base acres.--
                    ``(A) In general.--For each crop year for which 
                fruits, vegetables (other than mung beans and pulse 
                crops), or wild rice are planted to base acres on a 
                farm for which a reduction in payment acres is made 
                under this subsection, the Secretary shall consider 
                those base acres to be planted or prevented from 
                planting to a covered commodity for purposes of any 
                reallocation, adjustment, or reduction of base acres 
                for the farm under section 1112.
                    ``(B) Prohibition.--Nothing in this paragraph 
                provides authority to the Secretary to reallocate, 
                adjust, reduce, or otherwise recalculate base acres for 
                a farm.''.
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