PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 26, 2025
Protecting Mushroom Farmers Act
This bill requires the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) to provide for the research and development of a policy to insure the production of mushrooms and mushroom-growing media. (The term policy means an insurance policy, plan of insurance, provision of a policy or plan of insurance, and related materials.) The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, the agency that finances FCIP operations, must make any resulting policy available that meets specified FCIP requirements.
As part of the research and development, the bill requires an evaluation of the effectiveness of insurance for the production of mushrooms, including policies that (1) are based on the risk of specific pests and pathogens, (2) consider appropriate best practices to minimize the risk of loss, and (3) consider whether to provide coverage for mushrooms under one policy or to provide coverage for various phases of production.
People & committees
Rep. Houlahan, Chrissy [D-PA-6] · D–PA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Feb 18, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze H.R.1613 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine H.R.1613 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine H.R.1613 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine H.R.1613 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.
PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-26 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed Protecting Mushroom Farmers Act would require research into insurance for mushroom production and the production of materials used to grow mushrooms. It would require the Corporation named in the Federal Crop Insurance Act to make such insurance available if existing statutory requirements are met. The proposal concerns mushroom producers and growing-media producers; it does not itself establish that insurance is currently available.
This Act may be cited as the Protecting Mushroom Farmers Act.
The Corporation shall carry out research and development, or offer to enter into 1 or more contracts with 1 or more qualified persons to carry out research and development, regarding a policy to insure— (i) the production of mushroom growing media; and (ii) the production of mushrooms.
the Corporation shall make a policy described in subparagraph (A) available if the requirements of section 508(h) are met.
The bill would add a mushroom insurance provision to section 522(c) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act. The Corporation would have to conduct research and development itself or offer contracts to qualified people or entities to conduct it; the text does not require that those offers result in contracts.
Section 522(c) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
The Corporation shall carry out research and development, or offer to enter into 1 or more contracts with 1 or more qualified persons to carry out research and development
The Corporation would have to make a mushroom insurance policy available if section 508(h)'s requirements are met, despite the second sentence of section 508(a)(1) and section 508(a)(2). Those existing provisions are not reproduced, so the supplied text does not explain the requirements retained or the rules overridden.
(B) Availability of policy Notwithstanding the second sentence of section 508(a)(1), and section 508(a)(2), the Corporation shall make a policy described in subparagraph (A) available if the requirements of section 508(h) are met.
The research would evaluate insurance policies addressing pests, including mushroom phorid flies and sciarid flies, as well as disease-causing fungi and viruses. These are required research topics, rather than a guarantee of particular coverage terms.
Research and development described in subparagraph (A) shall evaluate the effectiveness of policies described in that subparagraph, including policies that— (i) are based on the risk of— (I) pests, including mushroom phorid flies and sciarid flies; (II) fungal pathogens; and (III) viral pathogens;
The research would also evaluate policies considering other causes of loss in mushroom compost and production, such as weather-related electricity outages and growing-media losses from excessive rainfall events described as 5-year, 10-year, or 20-year events.
(ii) consider other causes of loss applicable to mushroom compost and mushroom production, such as— (I) a loss of electricity due to weather; and (II) loss of growing media due to excessive 5-year, 10-year, or 20-year rainfall events;
The research would consider practices to reduce losses and whether insurance should cover mushrooms under one policy or cover different production phases.
(iii) consider appropriate best practices to minimize the risk of loss; (iv) consider whether to provide coverage for mushrooms under 1 policy or to provide coverage for various phases of production;
The research would evaluate policies with simplified reporting and paperwork suited to short growing cycles, variable crop years, and multiple mushroom varieties in one facility. It would also evaluate policies protecting against lost revenue—the money producers receive from sales.
(v) have streamlined reporting and paperwork requirements that take into account short propagation schedules, variable crop years, and the variety of mushrooms that may be produced in a single facility; and (vi) provide protection for revenue losses.
Within two years after enactment of the new paragraph, the Corporation would have to report research results and any recommendations to the House Agriculture Committee and the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. This deadline would depend on enactment, rather than the bill's introduction date.
(D) Report Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this paragraph, the Corporation shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate a report that describes— (i) the results of the research and development carried out under subparagraph (A); and (ii) any recommendations with respect to those results.
The supplied action snapshot, updated February 18, 2026, records introduction and referral to the House Agriculture Committee on February 26, 2025, followed by referral to its Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit on March 28, 2025. It does not establish the bill's status after that snapshot.
Source snapshot updated 2026-02-18T13:46:08Z. 2025-03-28: Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit. 2025-02-26: Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. 2025-02-26: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-26. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No provision unrelated to the main subject was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish the contents or attachment history of other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version; formal earmark disclosures and accompanying materials are not supplied.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
Findings to examine
The text contains a sector-specific statutory exception connected to its main insurance policy. Its practical scope remains uncertain without the referenced existing law.
Mushroom and growing-media producers could benefit from a special availability rule: their proposed insurance policy would have to be made available despite two specified provisions of existing law, while remaining subject to section 508(h). This is an express statutory exception beyond merely identifying the program's intended beneficiaries; the supplied text does not establish which practical restrictions it would remove.
regarding a policy to insure— (i) the production of mushroom growing media; and (ii) the production of mushrooms.
(B) Availability of policy Notwithstanding the second sentence of section 508(a)(1), and section 508(a)(2), the Corporation shall make a policy described in subparagraph (A) available if the requirements of section 508(h) are met.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Feb 18, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI