The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) is reopening the comment period for 30 days to allow the public additional time to provide comments on our regulation that allowed revenue coverage for flax under the Small Grain Crop Insurance Provisions, combined written agreement deadlines in the Dry Bean Crop Insurance Provisions to match other insurance policies, expanded the availability of enterprise and optional units for some specialty and perennial crops, and made clarifications and corrections to the Area Risk Protection Insurance, Basic Provisions; Common Crop Insurance Policy, Basic Provisions; and several Crop Provisions published on November 27, 2024 and effective on November 30, 2024.
Comments close Mar 12, 2025
The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) is amending its regulations regarding final agency determinations and interpretations of the Federal Crop Insurance Act and its associated regulations. This action is necessary to align agency procedures with Supreme Court precedent and the Administrative Procedure Act, ensuring that interpretive determinations are not improperly characterized as legislative rules. The effect of this rule is to clarify that final agency determinations are not matters of general applicability and are binding only on the parties requesting them. Furthermore, this rule removes provisions that previously attempted to make such determinations binding on independent adjudicators, such as Federal judges and the National Appeals Division. This final rule will also remove Federal crop insurance policy provisions from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This action modernizes program administration by discontinuing the practice of codifying detailed insurance contracts in regulation. Policy terms will continue to be published through official program materials and made available on the Risk Management Agency (RMA) website. This change does not affect the statutory authority of FCIC or the availability of crop insurance coverage.
The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) is amending its regulations to implement changes required by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and to update, streamline, and clarify several crop insurance policies. The changes include clarifying the harvest price methodology, deregulating regionalized program dates and moving that information to the Special Provisions, removing regulatory barriers to direct marketing, incorporating quality adjustment and claims processes, updating FCIC contact information used to request interpretations of policy, and making plain language clarifications and corrections to Subpart X--Interpretations of Statutory Provisions, Policy Provisions, and Procedures; the Area Risk Protection Insurance, Basic Provisions; the Common Crop Insurance Policy, Basic Provisions; and several Crop Provisions. In addition, the changes include removing buy-up coverage for prevented planting in the crop insurance program. The changes will be effective for the 2026 and succeeding crop years for crops with a contract change date on or after November 30, 2025. For all other crops, the changes to the policies made in this rule are applicable for the 2027 and succeeding crop years.
Risk Management Agency (RMA), on behalf of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), is in the process of reviewing all regulations within its purview to reduce regulatory burdens and costs. Pursuant to this review, FCIC has identified obsolete, unnecessary, and outdated provisions in title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR). FCIC is removing these provisions to streamline and clarify the dictates of title 7. The changes in this rule will reduce confusion for FCIC customers but otherwise the changes will have no impacts to insurance coverage for past or present FCIC customers.
Risk Management Agency (RMA), on behalf of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), is in the process of reviewing all regulations within its purview to reduce regulatory burdens and costs. Pursuant to this review, FCIC has identified the following obsolete, unnecessary, and outdated provisions in title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR). FCIC is removing these provisions to streamline and clarify the dictates of title 7. The changes in this rule will have no impacts on past or present FCIC customers.
The Risk Management Agency (RMA), on behalf of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), is issuing this rule to announce the availability of funding under the Additional Payment II Program (ADD PAY II). ADD PAY II is a one-time additional payment to Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs) administering eligible crop insurance contracts for 2022 and 2023 reinsurance year specialty crops. The total funding available for ADD PAY II is $30 million. Funding for ADD PAY II will be distributed to AIPs proportionally based on their respective liabilities for eligible crop insurance contracts for 2022 and 2023 reinsurance year specialty crops.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has independently determined that it will no longer employ the race- and sex-based "socially disadvantaged" designation to provide increased benefits based on race and sex in the programs at issue in this regulation. The USDA has faced a long history of litigation stemming from allegations of discrimination in the administration of its farm loan and benefit programs. However, over the past several decades, USDA has undertaken substantial efforts to redress past injustices, culminating in comprehensive settlements, institutional reforms, and compensatory frameworks. These actions collectively support the conclusion that past discrimination has been sufficiently addressed and that further race- and sex-based remedies are no longer necessary or legally justified under current circumstances.
