Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) wanted "the best information" yesterday from a panel of participants in a roundtable discussion of crop insurance reform.  In a wide ranging discussion of crop insurance designed to challenge all the assumptions on which crop insurance is based, the panel reached a consensus that crop insurance was preferable to a return of disaster bail-outs, but little else.  While Chairman Lugar seems to question the wisdom of an enhanced crop insurance program, other members of  the Committee, such as Senators Roberts (R-KS), Grassley (R-IA), Kerrey (D-NE), and Conrad (D-ND), expressed strong support for the program and the need to enhance it as quickly as possible.  A new member of the Committee, Senator Fitzgerald (R-IL), was quite critical of the program and said it was not working for his farmers.

The farmer members of the panel were generally supportive of the program and favored improving it with the expenditure of more money.  However, two professors who appeared at the Committee for the second time this year at the Committee's invitation continued to be critical of the program.  The crop insurance industry was represented by John Joyce, CEO of Rain and Hail, L.L.C. and Bob Fulwider, on behalf of the Independent Insurance Agents of America.  For a complete listing of roundtable participants and the topics discussed, click here.

The new budget resolution provides $6 billion for fiscal years 2001-04 but no additional funds for fiscal 2000.  "This is important," says Lugar, "because committee legislation that begins increased farm risk management assistance with the 2000 crops requires additional budget authority and outlays in fiscal year 2000.  As a result, increased spending on risk management assistance for the 2000 crops must be fully paid for with offsetting spending reductions in that year."

The administration wants an increase in the level of catastrophic coverage, higher premium subsidy rates for higher levels of coverage, multi-year insurance coverage, a pilot program for livestock coverage and government reimbursement of private companies for their costs in developing successful new products.

Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Bob Kerrey (D-NE) have introduced a bill that would increase federal premium subsidies as coverage increases, allow farmers to adjust their insurable crop yields when multiple years of disasters occur, authorize livestock coverage and provide for a privately funded fee structure to reimburse insurance companies for developing new products.  Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) has introduced a similar bill in the House.