Update on what Vilsack said last week regarding WHIP+

Payouts initially are coming in April or May via the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program-Plus (WHIP+) program. Congress authorized $10 billion over four months ago with instructions to make the program less complex and to implement accelerated payments versus the lengthy payment process for eligible 2018 and 2019 ag disasters. The coming program impacts eligible 2020 and 2021 crops, livestock and dairy.

Payments will likely be split in two tranches. The first tranche will be “based on information we already have,” Vilsack said. They would be pre-filled applications for grain producers (and) livestock forage data. Then there will be a second tranche to basically make up for whatever the first tranche didn’t cover, or for those who didn’t have Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) information or crop insurance information. USDA would then leverage the data it already has on file to calculate the benefit. 

The program will still be administered by FSA but the Risk Management Agency (RMA) would calculate the payment for insured producers and pass that dollar amount to FSA to pre-fill an application and apply payment limitations and eligibility provisions, etc. 

The second tranche would include opportunities for shallow losses and quality. A producer that receives a pre-filled application under the first tranche could be eligible to apply under the second.

On the livestock side, under the first phase, USDA would leverage LFP data and this would not require a producer to file an application; rather, FSA would just generate a payment based on the information submitted for LFP. Under the second tranche for livestock, USDA would be looking at what other gaps there may be to close them. This approach, meant to avoid FSA having to manually key in information already held by RMA, will save time in getting help out to producers. 

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