WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) along with senior committee member John Hoeven (R-ND) led a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urging the department to reinstate additional crop insurance coverage for acres prevented from being planted.
“Eliminating the option for producers to purchase additional buy-up coverage for prevented planting is troubling, especially at a time when our farmers need access to all risk management tools available to them,” the senators wrote.
When weather conditions prevent timely planting, buy-up coverage provides critical protection for producers of covered commodities in all 50 states. USDA’s decision to end prevented-planting buy-up coverage has raised concerns among growers nationwide.
In addition to Boozman, Klobuchar and Hoeven, the letter was also signed by Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Jim Justice (R-WV), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Tina Smith (D-MN).
Read the full letter below and at this link:
Thank you for your recent work to expand access and reduce burdens within crop insurance, including many provisions in the recently published rule by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation on November 28, 2025, titled “Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP).” However, Section VI has caused great concern amongst our growers. Eliminating the option for producers to purchase additional buy-up coverage for prevented planting is troubling, especially at a time when our farmers need access to all risk management tools available to them.
While Congress has provided ad hoc disaster assistance for producers who experienced prevented planting losses in the past, this type of assistance is never guaranteed nor able to be relied upon, which is why Congress made it clear that “[b]eginning with the 1995 crop year, the Corporation shall offer to producers additional prevented planting coverage…” 7 U.S.C. §1508(h)(6). According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) data, removal of this critical tool impacts over 67 million acres across all 50 states and all covered commodities in 2025 alone.
As we work closely with USDA to get producers through this challenging time, we respectfully ask that USDA reverse this decision and allow producers access to the additional prevented plant coverage for 2027 and beyond to help provide a layer of certainty when disasters beyond their control render them unable to plant a crop.
