Bill > S677

This bill, known as the Crop Insurance Improvement Act of 2013, aims to enhance and extend the federal crop insurance program by making several key changes. It mandates improved information sharing between the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and approved insurance providers to better assist producers in obtaining coverage, and it introduces a new "Supplemental Coverage Option" that allows farmers to purchase additional coverage to help cover a portion of their deductible under an individual or area-based policy, triggered by area-wide losses exceeding 10 percent. The bill also permanently allows for higher premium subsidies for enterprise units, which cover an entire farm or business operation, and requires separate enterprise units for irrigated and non-irrigated crops starting in 2014. Furthermore, it refines how yield data is collected and used for insurance purposes, introduces a new "Stacked Income Protection Plan" for upland cotton producers offering revenue loss coverage, and allows for corrections to producer eligibility information to align with FSA records, provided it doesn't grant disproportionate benefits or circumvent eligibility rules. Finally, the bill supports research and development for new crop insurance policies, including those for biomass and sweet sorghum energy crops, and aims to ensure that renegotiations of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement, a contract between the government and private insurers, are budget-neutral, with any savings directed towards risk management programs.