Farmers’ AID Relief Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7462 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7462

  To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to direct the Secretary of
   Agriculture to use certain data sets when determining eligibility
related to indemnity payments under the Hurricane Insurance Protection-
            Wind Index endorsement, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 10, 2026

    Mr. Carter of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Allen)
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
                              Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

  To amend the Federal Crop Insurance Act to direct the Secretary of
   Agriculture to use certain data sets when determining eligibility
related to indemnity payments under the Hurricane Insurance Protection-
            Wind Index endorsement, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Farmers' Assistance and Immediate
Disaster Relief Act'' or the ``Farmers' AID Relief Act''.

SEC. 2. HURRICANE INSURANCE PROTECTION-WIND INDEX ENDORSEMENT.

    (a) In General.--Section 508 of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7
U.S.C. 1508) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(q) Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index Endorsement.--
            ``(1) Determination of payment eligibility.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Beginning with crop year 2027,
                in determining whether a county is eligible with
                respect to a hurricane weather event for an indemnity
                payment under HIP-WI, the Secretary shall--
                            ``(i) use the IBTrACS data set; or
                            ``(ii) subject to subparagraph (B), use the
                        alternative data set compiled pursuant to
                        paragraph (2).
                    ``(B) Condition for use of alternative data set.--
                For purposes of subparagraph (A)(ii), the Secretary may
                only use the alternative data set compiled pursuant to
                paragraph (2) if--
                            ``(i) the data set specified in
                        subparagraph (A)(i) is incomplete, as
                        determined by the Secretary; and
                            ``(ii) one of the following conditions is
                        met:
                                    ``(I) A weather station operated by
                                National Weather Service in the county
                                subject to the determination of
                                eligibility in subparagraph (A), or an
                                adjacent county, was damaged.
                                    ``(II) Any other source of data for
                                making such determination in such
                                county or an adjacent county was
                                damaged.
                                    ``(III) Any such station or other
                                source provided incomplete data, as
                                determined by the Secretary.
            ``(2) Compilation of alternative data set.--For purposes of
        determining eligibility under paragraph (1)(A)(ii), the
        Secretary shall compile, and make available to the public on
        the website of the Department related to HIP-WI, an alternative
        data set for the hurricane weather event prompting such
        determination using data that--
                    ``(A) is collected for a specified time period
                during such weather event, as determined by the
                Secretary;
                    ``(B) contains the same types of data contained in
                the IBTrACS data set; and
                    ``(C) is consistent with the form of such types of
                data, as determined by the Secretary.
            ``(3) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                    ``(A) HIP-WI.--The term `HIP-WI' means the
                Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index endorsement
                established in 2020 by the Risk Management Agency of
                the Department.
                    ``(B) IBTrACS data set.--The term `IBTrACS data
                set' means the International Best Track Archive for
                Climate Stewardship data set from the National Oceanic
                and Atmospheric Administration, including the season,
                name, time, location in latitude and longitude, maximum
                sustained winds, hurricane category, and wind extents
                data associated with a hurricane weather event.
                    ``(C) Alternative data set.--The term `alternative
                data set' means data collected by a weather station
                that is--
                            ``(i) operated by a land-grant college or
                        university (as defined in section 1404 of the
                        National Agricultural Research, Extension, and
                        Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3103));
                        and
                            ``(ii) certified, at the time data is
                        collected for purposes of paragraph (2), as
                        compliant with standards issued by the National
                        Weather Service, including the standards
                        described in the directive issued on November
                        9, 2023, entitled `National Weather Service
                        Instruction 10-1302' (or successor
                        directives).''.
    (b) Regulations.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall--
            (1) issue such rules as may be necessary to implement the
        amendment made by this section; and
            (2) revise any guidance relating to the Hurricane Insurance
        Protection-Wind Index endorsement established in 2020 by the
        Risk Management Agency of the Department of Agriculture.
                                 <all>