Farmers get drought insurance payments for ten years, then lose them.
H.R. 10411 — To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to consider certain acreage not planted due to a lack of irrigation water to be eligible for prevented planting payments, and for other purposes. · Filed by Jeff Hurd (R-CO) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill lets farmers claim insurance money when they cannot plant crops. They must lack enough irrigation water and have watered those acres in the past four years. Payments are full at first. They drop by half in years five through eight. They drop by three-quarters in years nine and ten. Payments stop forever after year ten. The USDA must update drought rules to count water shortages. The USDA must ask local farm committees before declaring a disaster.
Who it affects
Farmers who irrigate crops in dry areas can now get paid when water runs out. After ten years, those farmers lose this payment forever.
One thing to notice
The bill stops all payments after ten years and never lets farmers claim them again. Farmers in areas with long-term water shortages may lose help when they need it most.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Sep 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- irrigation water — Water pumped or diverted to fields to grow crops.
- USDA — The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the government agency that helps farmers.
- insurance money — Payments made when a farmer cannot plant crops due to bad weather or water shortage.
- drought rules — Government guidelines that decide when a farm can get help after dry conditions.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,701 characters) on Sep 23, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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