USDA to update livestock compensation quarterly based on real market prices
S. 1493 — Livestock Indemnity Program Improvement Act of 2025 · Filed by Mike Rounds (R-SD) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Secretary of Agriculture to update Livestock Indemnity Program payment rates every quarter based on current market prices, working with the Agricultural Marketing Service. Currently, payment rates are static; this change ties them to real-time market conditions so farmers receive indemnities that reflect what livestock is actually worth.
Why we flagged it
The bill updates an existing federal indemnity program to use current market data rather than static rates, a routine administrative improvement to ensure program accuracy and responsiveness.
What the text implies
- Quarterly updates may increase administrative burden on USDA and Agricultural Marketing Service, requiring more frequent data collection and rate recalculation.
- More frequent rate adjustments could create volatility in farmer expectations and planning if market prices swing sharply between quarters.
- The bill does not specify how the Secretary should handle extreme price swings or market disruptions, leaving discretion in implementation.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Farmers who suffer livestock losses receive indemnity payments that better reflect current market conditions rather than outdated or static rates, improving the accuracy and timeliness of federal compensation. The quarterly update mechanism ensures the program remains responsive to price volatility.
Who stands to gain
- livestock farmers and ranchers (primary beneficiaries of more accurate indemnity payments)
Named in the bill
Secretary of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, Livestock Indemnity Program, Agricultural Act of 2014, Section 1501(b)(2)
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Apr 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
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 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $0 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 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.
Mike Rounds, the sponsor, reported $1,681,790 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Treated Wood Council — $0 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 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 (785 characters) on Jun 10, 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 Jun 2026 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 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“USDA to update livestock compensation quarterly based on real market prices” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1493 Report an error
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