S. 231 (119th)Bill Overview

WEATHER Act of 2025

Agriculture and Food|Agriculture and Food
Cosponsors
Support
Democratic
Introduced
Jan 23, 2025
Discussions
Bill Text
Current stageCommittee

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

Introduced
Committee
Floor
President
Law
Congressional Activities
01 · The brief
Plain-English summaryWhat this bill actually does

<p><strong>Withstanding Extreme Agricultural Threats by Harvesting Economic Resilience Act of 2025 or the WEATHER Act of 2025</strong></p><p>This bill requires the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) to provide for the research and development of a single index insurance policy to insure against agricultural income losses due to covered weather conditions.</p><p>Specifically, the FCIP must develop a single index policy that is available in every state, each U.S. territory, and the District of Columbia to insure against agricultural income losses due to one or more covered weather conditions. <em>Covered weather conditions</em> are those&nbsp;found to be closely correlated with agricultural income losses, including high winds, excessive moisture and flooding, extreme heat, abnormal freeze conditions, wildfire, hail, drought, and any other severe weather or growing conditions applicable to small-scale farmers.</p><p>Under an index policy, claim payments are generally triggered based on a predetermined index that is entirely independent of the individual farm operation (e.g., rainfall level). Under such a policy, the payments are automatically triggered when the index reaches a certain level rather than when an insured farmer files a claim.&nbsp;</p><p>In carrying out the research and development, the&nbsp;FCIP&nbsp;must hold stakeholder meetings to solicit producer and agent feedback.</p><p>In addition, the FCIP must make publicly available a report on the results of the research and development, and any recommendations to Congress with respect to those results.&nbsp;</p>

Why people may split

The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.

Watch point

The next hurdle is converting committee movement into a floor coalition.

<p><strong>Withstanding Extreme Agricultural Threats by Harvesting Economic Resilience Act of 2025 or the WEATHER Act of 2025</strong></p><p>This bill requires the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) to provide for the research and development of a single index insurance policy to insure against agricultural income losses due to covered weather conditions.</p><p>Specifically, the FCIP must develop a single index policy that is available in every state, each U.S. territory, and the District of Columbia to insure against agricultural income losses due to one or more covered weather conditions. <em>Covered weather conditions</em> are those&nbsp;found to be closely correlated with agricultural income losses, including high winds, excessive moisture and flooding, extreme heat, abnormal freeze conditions, wildfire, hail, drought, and any other severe weather or growing conditions applicable to small-scale farmers.</p><p>Under an index policy, claim payments are generally triggered based on a predetermined index that is entirely independent of the individual farm operation (e.g., rainfall level).

Under such a policy, the payments are automatically triggered when the index reaches a certain level rather than when an insured farmer files a claim.&nbsp;</p><p>In carrying out the research and development, the&nbsp;FCIP&nbsp;must hold stakeholder meetings to solicit producer and agent feedback.</p><p>In addition, the FCIP must make publicly available a report on the results of the research and development, and any recommendations to Congress with respect to those results.&nbsp;</p>

Passage38/100

This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.

CredibilityPartial

How solid the drafting looks.

Contention62/100

The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.

02 · What it does

Who stands to gain, and who may push back.

Likely benefits vs burdens0% / 100%
Likely helpedLikely burdened

These are examples from the analysis, not a ranked list of the most-affected groups.

Likely helped
  • No clear beneficiaries surfaced yet.
Likely burdened
  • No clear downsides surfaced yet.
03 · Why people split

Why the argument around this bill splits.

The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
Progressive

The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.

Unclear
Centrist

The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.

Unclear
Conservative

The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.

Unclear
04 · Can it pass?

The path through Congress.

Introduced

Reached or meaningfully advanced

Committee

Reached or meaningfully advanced

Floor

Still ahead

President

Still ahead

Law

Still ahead

Passage likelihood38/100

This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.

Why this could stall
  • The next hurdle is converting committee movement into a floor coalition.
05 · Recent votes

Recent votes on the bill.

No vote history yet

The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.

06 · Go deeper

Go deeper than the headline read.

Included on this page

The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.

This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.

Unlocked analysis

Pro readers get the full perspective split, passage barriers, legislative design review, stakeholder impact map, and lens-based policy tradeoff analysis for WEATHER Act of 2025.

Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.

Perspective breakdownsPassage barriersLegislative design reviewStakeholder impact map
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