Supplemental Disaster Assistance Programs, Marketing Assistance Loans, and Sugar Provisions

This rule revises the regulations of the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP), the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), the Tree Assistance Program (TAP), the Marketing Assistance Loan (MAL) and Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP) Programs, and the Sugar Program to conform with provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Changes to the supplemental disaster assistance programs include ELAP assistance for losses due to bird depredation and a change to honeybee colony loss normal mortality; a lower drought threshold for LFP eligibility; LIP assistance for unborn death losses and changes to compensation for predation losses and the market values used in the LIP payment calculations; and changes to the TAP eligibility threshold and reimbursement percentage for certain costs. This rule increases the MAL and LDP loan rates for all eligible commodities for the 2026 through 2031 crop years as specified by OBBBA. Additional MAL and LDP changes for upland and extra-long staple (ELS) cotton required by OBBBA include revised formulas to calculate the prevailing world market price for upland cotton, the introduction of a prevailing world market price and adjusted world price for ELS cotton, and changes to the payment of cotton storage costs by area. Additionally, FSA is amending regulations to add provisions for a 30- day post-repayment loan review in which a refund for upland cotton repayment or an additional LDP disbursement could occur. Sugar Program changes are related to effective loan rates, storage rates, and sugar marketing allocation provisions. This rule also makes minor administrative changes to the Sugar Program regulations. Technical amendments are included for grains and similarly handled commodities, and honey. This rule also makes additional changes to the regulations for those programs to update eligibility and payment provisions, clarify program requirements, and improve program integrity. This rule also updates the Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP) provisions to indicate that 2026 is the final crop year covered by the program, and makes corrections to the regulations for the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) Programs and Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) Program.