Federal poultry bailout: Who pays when bird flu shuts farms down?
S. 574 — Healthy Poultry Assistance and Indemnification Act of 2025 · Filed by Roger Wicker (R-MS) · 17 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 13, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal animal health law to require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to compensate poultry farmers whose flocks are prohibited from being grown or raised during disease control areas (typically during avian flu outbreaks). Compensation is calculated as the average income from the farmer's five most recent flocks, multiplied by the number of flocks they were prevented from raising, minus any state or other compensation already received. Payments must be made within 60 days of request.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to establish a federal compensation program for poultry producers during disease-control quarantines. It is a targeted relief measure, not a broad subsidy or deregulation, and operates within existing animal health law.
What the text implies
- Compensation is capped at the difference between calculated loss and any state/other compensation, creating potential gaps if state programs are generous or if actual losses exceed the five-flock average formula.
- The bill does not address whether 60-day payment timelines are feasible during large-scale outbreaks affecting many farms simultaneously, potentially creating cash-flow crises for smaller operations.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
poultry producers and integrators; large-scale poultry farming operations; vertically integrated poultry companies