Bill > HR5879

This bill, titled the "Protect our Prairies Act," amends the Federal Crop Insurance Act and related legislation to reduce crop insurance and disaster assistance for crops grown on native sod acreage that has been converted to cropland. Specifically, for the first four years after converting native sod to cropland, producers will face a reduced transitional yield of 65% and a 50 percentage point reduction in their crop insurance premium subsidy. This means that the government's contribution to their insurance premiums will be significantly lower during this initial period. Additionally, producers will not be allowed to substitute yields for this native sod acreage during this time. The bill also requires the Secretary of Agriculture to report on cropland acreage changes annually. The term "native sod" refers to land that has never been tilled, and "transitional yield" is an estimate of a farm's yield during the early years of cultivation on land that was previously uncultivated. The context for this bill is to discourage the conversion of native grasslands, which are important for environmental reasons, into farmland.