Congress expands crop insurance to cover grape freeze losses
H.R. 292 — GRAPE Act · Filed by Nicholas Langworthy (R-NY) · Introduced Jan 9, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to research and develop a new crop insurance policy covering table, wine, and juice grapes against freeze damage within one year, and to make such a policy available within 18 months if it meets statutory requirements. Grape growers would benefit by gaining access to federally backed insurance protection against a specific agricultural risk.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a mandate to develop and offer a new federally backed crop insurance product for a specific agricultural commodity. It is a straightforward expansion of an existing federal program to cover a previously uninsured crop.
What the text implies
- The bill does not specify funding; the cost of R&D and policy administration will be absorbed by the FCIC's existing budget or require separate appropriation, which may affect the agency's capacity for other crop insurance work.
- Freeze-loss insurance for grapes may increase the federal government's contingent liability if widespread freeze events occur, as the FCIC would be obligated to pay claims under the new policy.
- The 18-month deadline to make the policy available is aggressive and may require the FCIC to contract with private insurers or reinsurers, creating a new revenue stream for the insurance industry.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Grape growers gain a new risk-management tool backed by federal crop insurance, reducing their exposure to freeze losses and stabilizing farm income. The mandate is narrow and targeted, imposing no new costs on the general public—crop insurance is an existing federal program, and this simply expands its scope to a previously uncovered crop.
Who stands to gain
- grape growers and producers
- crop insurance companies (if contracted to administer or reinsure the policy)
- agricultural reinsurers
Named in the bill
Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), Federal Crop Insurance Act, Section 522(c), Section 508(a)(1), Section 508(a)(2), Section 508(h), House Committee on Agriculture, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Where it stands
- Jan 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 9, 2025 — 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.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,005,758 in lobbying spend. A filing names 133 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Nicholas Langworthy, the sponsor, reported $1,046,611 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies — $1,005,758 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,438 characters) on Aug 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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