# 119-s-904: Livestock Disaster Assistance Improvement Act of 2025

119-s-904, Livestock Disaster Assistance Improvement Act of 2025, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Thune, John [R-SD] (R-SD); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-04-21).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-904
- As of: 2026-04-21
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-904
- Congress: 119
- Title: Livestock Disaster Assistance Improvement Act of 2025
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-03-06
- Sponsor: Sen. Thune, John [R-SD] (R-SD)
- Cosponsors: 1
- Policy area: Agriculture and Food
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-04-21

## Summary

**Expands and clarifies disaster aid for livestock, honey bees, and grazers.** It would broaden who can get help, allow permanent water infrastructure, set beekeeping loss rules, and improve drought data and agency coordination. - Ranchers and grazers: Producers who hold a federal land‑use permit or lease land from a state or local government would become eligible for Emergency Conservation Program payments. The bill would allow payments for permanent water wells and pipelines and would ease environmental review during drought emergencies. - Forage and emergency payments: The Livestock Forage Disaster rules would treat 4 consecutive weeks as one monthly payment or 8 consecutive weeks as eligible for two monthly payments, giving producers more payment flexibility. Emergency Assistance would explicitly cover drought, feed or water shortages, transportation costs, disease, and other Secretary‑determined causes of loss. - Beekeepers and drought coordination: Beekeepers would get a per‑hive and per‑colony loss‑rate method, national data standards for documenting losses, and no cap on operation size for payments. The bill would create a Drought Monitor Interagency Working Group within 180 days, require a report within 1 year, and require an interagency MOU to align drought determinations after the report.

## Cosponsors (1)

- Sen. Luján, Ben Ray [D-NM] (D-NM), 2025-03-06T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Emergency conservation help for grazers: benefit, medium. If enacted, people with Federal permits to graze or who lease State or local land could be eligible for Emergency Conservation Program payments. Payments could cover new permanent measures like water wells and pipelines and replacing temporary fixes with permanent infrastructure. Payments still cou…
- More emergency help for beekeepers: benefit, medium. If enacted, emergency aid would cover drought and feed or water shortages for livestock and honey bees. Transportation costs for feed, water, livestock, and bees could be eligible. Beekeeper payments must reflect per-hive and per-colony losses and apply with no operation-size cap. The Secretary cou…
- More monthly forage payments for ranchers: benefit, medium. If enacted, the Livestock Forage Disaster Program would pay one monthly payment for at least 4 consecutive weeks of qualifying forage loss during a county's normal grazing period. If a producer has 8 consecutive qualifying weeks, they could get two monthly payments. The Secretary will determine eac…
- Improve drought data and monitoring: benefit, medium. If enacted, USDA must create a Drought Monitor working group within 180 days to improve the data behind the U.S. Drought Monitor. The group must report recommendations to Congress and agencies within one year. The Secretary must try to adopt recommendations within 180 days after the report. The wor…
- FSA and Forest Service drought agreement: benefit, low. If enacted, FSA and the Forest Service must sign an MOU within 60 days after the working group's report. The MOU would align how they decide drought severity and resolve inconsistent determinations. It must use the U.S. Drought Monitor when practicable and give consistent information to grazing per…

## Related bills

- 119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act
- 119-s-725: Enhancing First Response Act
- 119-s-4448: Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026
- 119-s-1241: Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025
- 119-s-1261: CONNECT for Health Act of 2025
- 119-s-3345: PBM Price Transparency and Accountability Act

## Sources
- [119-s-904 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/904)

## Related
- [119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1748)
- [119-s-725: Enhancing First Response Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-725)
- [119-s-4448: Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4448)
- [119-s-1241: Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1241)
- [119-s-1261: CONNECT for Health Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1261)
- [119-s-3345: PBM Price Transparency and Accountability Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3345)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-904 (as of 2026-04-21).