Background

Continuing dry conditions and concerns regarding the potential for limited availability of irrigation water for the 2014 crop year planting season has raised questions regarding properly documenting the information used to support determinations related to irrigation water availability.

Background

Section 508(a)(9) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (Act) states:

(9) PREMIUM ADJUSTMENTS.—

(A) PROHIBITION.—Except as provided in subparagraph (B), no person shall pay, allow, or give, or offer to pay, allow, or give, directly or indirectly, either as an inducement to procure insurance or after insurance has been procured, any rebate, discount, abatement, credit, or reduction of the premium named in an insurance policy or any other valuable consideration or inducement not specified in the policy.

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) has released the 2015 Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA) and Appendices I, II, and IV, and the 2015 Livestock Price Reinsurance Agreement (LPRA) and Appendices I, II, and IV, which become effective July 1, 2014. The documents are located on the RMA website at: www.rma.usda.gov/policy-procedure/reinsurance-agreements. The draft Appendix III that provides standards, procedure and instructions for reporting data to RMA will be issued by May 10, 2014.

Background

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) contracted with KPMG, LLP (KPMG) to conduct an independent study of the economic costs of delivering the Federal crop insurance program to US agricultural producers. KPMG will conduct a number of interviews and surveys which will impose an information collection burden on the general public. Thus, RMA and KPMG were required by the Paperwork Reduction Act to obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct the data collection exercise as it relates to the interviews, surveys and related collection activities.