TEMP Act

This bill would direct the federal crop insurance program to research and develop a temperature-based index policy to protect crops like citrus, berries, and sugarcane from losses caused by frost or cold weather. Unlike traditional insurance, these policies would automatically trigger payments when temperatures reach a predetermined level rather than requiring farmers to file individual claims. The proposed research would evaluate risk management tools for catastrophic weather events to create a policy that covers both production and revenue losses.

This bill affects the federal crop insurance program, which is directed to conduct research and development for a new temperature-based index policy. The proposed insurance would benefit agricultural producers of specific crops, including tomatoes, peppers, sugarcane, strawberries, melons, citrus, peaches, and blueberries. These farmers would receive automatic claim payments when a predetermined temperature index indicates a frost or cold weather event, regardless of individual farm operation data.

• Development of temperature-based index insurance. The bill directs the federal crop insurance program to conduct research and development for a nationally available insurance policy based on temperature indices. This policy is intended to protect crops such as tomatoes, peppers, sugarcane, strawberries, melons, citrus, peaches, and blueberries against losses from frost or cold weather events.
• Evaluation of risk management for catastrophic weather. The required research must assess how effectively risk management tools address low-frequency and catastrophic weather events. The resulting policy must offer protection for both production loss and revenue loss.
• Implementation of automatic index-based payments. The proposed insurance would utilize a predetermined index, such as temperature levels, that is independent of individual farm operations. Payments would be triggered automatically when the index reaches a specific threshold, rather than requiring a farmer to file a traditional claim.

This bill expands the scope of the federal crop insurance program by requiring the development of a new temperature-based index policy to protect against frost and cold weather events.

The bill aims to expand federal crop insurance by directing research and development into a nationally available temperature-based index policy to protect various crops against losses caused by frost or cold weather events. The goal is to evaluate risk management tools for catastrophic weather and establish a policy that automatically triggers payments for production or revenue loss based on predetermined temperature levels.