TEMP Act

The TEMP Act would direct the federal crop insurance program to conduct research and development on a new type of insurance policy designed to protect farmers against losses from frost and cold weather events. This temperature-based index policy would cover specific temperature-sensitive crops including tomatoes, peppers, sugarcane, strawberries, melons, citrus, peaches, and blueberries.

Unlike traditional crop insurance that requires farmers to file claims and document losses, this index policy would automatically trigger payments when temperatures drop to predetermined levels, regardless of actual farm-by-farm damage. The research would evaluate how well these tools manage risk from rare but catastrophic weather events and would aim to create a policy available nationwide that protects farmers from either production losses or revenue losses due to temperature events.

This bill is currently in the early stages of the legislative process and has been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. Most introduced bills do not advance further, so this proposal would need committee approval and broader congressional support to become law.