USDA expands drought aid to crawfish farmers and livestock producers
S. 1669 — CRAWDAD Act · Filed by John Kennedy (R-LA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced May 7, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill expands USDA drought-disaster assistance to explicitly cover crawfish farmers and clarifies that livestock assistance applies to both weaned and unweaned animals. It adds crawfish harvest losses to the emergency assistance program and requires the USDA to establish documentation standards for crawfish production data and drought-loss conditions.
Why we flagged it
The bill straightforwardly expands an existing USDA emergency-assistance program to include a new crop category (crawfish) and clarifies livestock eligibility. It is a routine sectoral extension of existing disaster-relief authority.
What the text implies
- Documentation standards for crawfish may set a precedent for other aquaculture or specialty-crop disaster programs, potentially expanding the program further.
- Inclusion of unweaned livestock may increase total payouts to ranchers during drought events, raising future appropriations pressure.
- The bill does not specify funding source or appropriation level, leaving implementation dependent on future budget action.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Rural farmers and crawfish producers gain access to federal disaster assistance they previously lacked, reducing their financial exposure to drought and weather events. The documentation standards ensure transparent, consistent eligibility determinations.
Who stands to gain
- crawfish farmers
- livestock producers
- farm-raised fish producers
Named in the bill
USDA, Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Act of 2014, Section 1501(d), Section 1501(c)(1)(A)(i)
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- May 7, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 7, 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
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,245,758 in lobbying spend. A filing names 127 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
John Kennedy, the sponsor, reported $113,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies — $1,005,758 on 2 filings
- Bmw of North America, LLC — $240,000 on 1 filing
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 (1,149 characters) on Aug 18, 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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