Drought Assistance Improvement Act
The Drought Assistance Improvement Act would broaden and streamline USDA drought-related disaster aid for livestock, honey bees, and farm-raised fish (including crawfish). It immediate expands how eligibility and payments work under the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) and adds drought-focused provisions to the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program. Key changes include offering more flexible timeframes for forage loss eligibility (4 weeks with 1 month of payment or 8 weeks with 2 months of payment), adding drought to the conditions and documentation standards, and explicitly covering crawfish harvest losses due to drought or adverse weather with new data and loss-definition requirements developed in consultation with affected producers. Overall, the bill aims to increase access to disaster aid during droughts and tighten how losses—particularly for crawfish—are documented and measured.
Key Points
- 1Adjusts the Livestock Forage Disaster Program eligibility and payments to allow either 4 consecutive weeks of normal grazing period eligibility for 1 monthly payment, or 8 consecutive weeks for 2 monthly payments.
- 2Expands the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program by explicitly including drought alongside adverse weather as qualifying factors and by updating the documentation standards.
- 3Requires the Secretary, in consultation with eligible farm-raised fish producers, to establish documentation standards for data collection, crawfish production relative to harvest reductions, and defining loss conditions due to drought.
- 4Adds loss of crawfish harvest (due to drought or adverse weather) to the covered losses under the Emergency Assistance program.
- 5Establishes a farmer-driven process for developing these documentation standards, ensuring input from eligible farm-raised fish producers.