Removal of Regulatory Overreach and Federal Crop Insurance Policy Provisions

Congress set up the Federal Crop Insurance Program in 1938, starting with wheat, and from the beginning the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) printed its insurance policies in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A final rule effective May 1, 2026, ends that practice.

Where the policies go: policy terms, including the Common Crop Insurance Policy and its endorsements, will live in official program materials and on the Risk Management Agency (RMA) website, which FCIC calls real-time, searchable and version-controlled. The rule removes 7 CFR parts 402, 407 and 457 and gathers non-policy crop insurance rules in part 400. FCIC says the move does not add, change or remove any coverage, eligibility rule or producer obligation, and does not affect the availability of crop insurance.

The second change involves “final agency determinations,” FCIC’s official answers to questions about how the crop insurance law and rules should be read. Under the old rules, written determinations bound everyone in the program, and written FCIC interpretations and RMA employee testimony bound arbitrators, mediators, judges and USDA’s National Appeals Division (NAD). Now a determination binds only the parties who asked for it and can be appealed to NAD. On the old provision binding federal judges, FCIC writes: “There simply is no constitutional basis for this provision.”

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Under the revised procedures, FCIC has 90 days to answer a request. If it misses that window, the requested interpretation applies for that crop year; on a joint request where the parties disagree, neither side may assume it is right. Determinations issued before April 1, 2026, bind only the party that asked, unless a policy in effect incorporates them by reference.

FCIC skipped advance public comment, citing good cause because it sees the policy move as procedural. The rule is signed by Heather Manzano, Acting Manager of FCIC (Docket No. FCIC-26-0067, RIN 0563-AC91). Contact: Chandra Place, (816) 926-3875.

Federal Register filing: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/04/01/2026-06277/removal-of-regulatory-overreach-and-federal-crop-insurance-policy-provisions

This is a Notice Nearby publisher-desk Federal brief — a short in-house summary of a public federal filing. It is not official agency minutes, not a newspaper story, and not Legal Publication. It does not satisfy a statutory notice requirement.