Balanced Agricultural Support and Efficiency Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Balanced Agricultural Support and Efficiency Act requires USDA to update base acres on farms for the 2025 crop year. It changes the Agricultural Act of 2014 so base acres for covered commodities are determined under a revised section 1112 rather than the prior generic base acreage rules. USDA must update all base acres among covered commodities planted on the farm at any time during the 2020 through 2024 crop years.
The updated allocation is based on each covered commodity's share of the farm's five-year average planted acreage plus prevented-planted acreage from drought, flood, natural disaster, or other conditions beyond the producers' control. USDA may not exclude a crop year from the five-year average simply because a covered commodity was not planted. When acreage was planted or prevented from being planted to more than one covered commodity in the same crop year, the owner may choose which commodity counts for that crop year, but may not count both the initial and subsequent commodity unless an established double-cropping practice applies.
Who Benefits and How
Corn farmers, soybean farmers, wheat farmers, rice farmers, peanut farmers, and seed cotton farmers whose recent 2020 through 2024 planting history better reflects their current operations benefit from base acres that align with recent production. Farmers with prevented-planting acres caused by drought, flood, natural disaster, or other uncontrollable conditions benefit because those acres count in the five-year average. Farm owners with multiple plantings benefit from an election to choose which covered commodity counts for a crop year.
Who Bears the Burden and How
USDA Farm Service Agency administrators must update base acres for farms nationwide, calculate five-year averages, verify planted and prevented-planted acreage, and administer owner elections for multiple planting or prevented planting. Farmers with legacy base acres that exceed their recent planting shares may receive less favorable commodity-program treatment after the update. Farm owners must make elections when multiple covered commodities could otherwise be counted.
Key Provisions
- Amends the base acres definition for covered commodities to refer to revised section 1112 determinations.
- Requires USDA to update base acres for the 2025 crop year as soon as practicable after enactment.
- Requires updated base acres to be allocated among covered commodities planted during crop years 2020 through 2024.
- Provides that prevented-planted acreage from drought, flood, natural disaster, or other conditions beyond producer control counts in the five-year average.
- Prohibits USDA from excluding a crop year because a covered commodity was not planted.
- Provides an owner election for multiple planting or prevented planting in the same crop year and bars counting both commodities unless double cropping applies.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires USDA to update farm base acres for covered commodities for the 2025 crop year using 2020 through 2024 planted and prevented-planted acreage, replaces the existing base-acre definition, removes generic base acreage rules, and establishes proportional and multiple-planting treatment for updated commodity base acres.
Key Policy Areas
Agriculture, Commodity Programs, Farm Income Support
Primary Purpose
Requires USDA to update farm base acres for covered commodities for the 2025 crop year using 2020 through 2024 planted and prevented-planted acreage, replaces the existing base-acre definition, removes generic base acreage rules, and establishes proportional and multiple-planting treatment for updated commodity base acres.
Policy Domains
Section 2 mandatory 2025 base acre update for covered commodities
Identified Gains
- Corn farmers with recent plantings
- Soybean farmers with recent plantings
- Wheat farmers with recent plantings
- Farmers with disaster-related prevented planting
- Farm owners with multiple planting elections
Identified Costs
- USDA Farm Service Agency base acre administrators
- Farmers with legacy base acreage advantages
- Farm owners making commodity elections
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and …
Mr. Johnson of South Dakota (for himself and Ms. Budzinski) …
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Corn farmers with recent plantings, Farm owners making commodity elections, Farmers with disaster-related prevented planting
Positive-direction: Corn farmers with recent plantings, Farmers with disaster-related prevented planting, Soybean farmers with recent plantings
Negative-direction: Farm owners making commodity elections, Farmers with legacy base acreage advantages
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "owner"
- → Farm owner making a multiple-planting commodity election
- "producer"
- → Producer on a farm with covered commodity acreage
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
For a covered commodity on a farm, the number of acres determined under revised section 1112 of the Agricultural Act of 2014.
The 2025 crop year allocation among covered commodities based on the farm's 2020 through 2024 planted and prevented-planted acreage shares.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology