Generic Justification for ECAP IC Request March 13 2025

OMB Control Number: 0503-0028

Exp. Date: October 31, 2027

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Solution for Funding Opportunity Announcement”

TITLE: Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP).

USDA Agency: Farm Service Agency (FSA).

Alignment with Information Collection Package: (Check one)

[ ] One-Time Pilot Program.

[X] One-Time Funding Announcement of New Program.

Purpose: (Briefly describe the program. Explain the information to be collected to clearly describe to OMB the requirements and burden on the respondents. For example, if the table below shows 150 burden hours for project summary, provide additional detail elaborating on what the respondents are required to provide to meet that requirement.)

FSA is providing producers with ECAP payments. ECAP will use $10 billion in funds authorized by Section 2102 of Division B of Title I of the American Relief Act, 2025 (Pub. L. 118-158) to issue 1-time economic assistance payments to eligible producers of eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year. These payments will help producers of eligible commodities cope with losses from natural disasters and a difficult farm economy, and will help preserve family farms and ranches across the country while also continuing to ensure food and agricultural security for our nation.

ECAP applications (FSA-63) will be pre-filled using eligible acres of planted and prevented planted eligible commodities that the producers previously submitted to FSA, as described here. FSA will use the information on file from producers’ FSA-578, Report of Acreage, for the 2024 crop year. Producers also must have filed a notice of loss for prevented planted acreage using FSA‑576, Part A and B. FSA already has this information on file for most producers.

Producers of eligible commodities who did not previously submit an acreage report or notice of loss may submit late-filed forms for ECAP eligibility purposes without paying a late-filing fee. If requested by FSA, producers must also provide supporting documentation to substantiate late-filed reports of acreage and notices of loss, such as seed receipts, chemical and fertilizer receipts, precision planting records, harvesting records, geospatial data or maps, and published weather data. Producers who are requesting an increase to the payment limitation must also file CCC‑943, 75% of Average Gross Income from Farming, Ranching, or Forestry Certification.

Producers must also submit the following forms that are necessary to obtain producer information and determine eligibility, if not already on file with FSA due to participation in previous programs:

• AD-1026, Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland Conservation Certification (exempt from PRA 16 U.S.C. 3846), for producers and affiliates as required by 7 CFR part 12;

• AD-2047, Customer Data Worksheet, for new producers and existing customers who need to update their information;

• CCC-901, Member Information for Legal Entities, if applicable;

• CCC-902E, Farm Operating Plan for an Entity, if applicable;

• CCC-902I, Farm Operating Plan for an Individual, if applicable.

Announcement Dates: FSA intends to accept ECAP applications on the of Federal Register publication date (target publication March 19, 2025) through August 15, 2025. The specific dates will be dependent on the publication date of the NOFA.

Type of Collection: (Check one)

[ ] Grant.

[ ] Cooperative agreement.

[X] Other: Notice of Funding Availability.

How will information collected be submitted to the agency?
[ ] Grants.gov

[X] Other: Producers may submit applications by mail (postage paid by the producer) or electronically using Box and OneSpan. The application form and other required forms will also be available electronically through a public website and in local FSA Service Centers. The producers will submit the required forms and documentation to their local FSA office.

Does the agency need to collect information, such as progress reports, beyond the expiration of this generic ICR (October 2027)? If so, will the agency be submitting a regular ICR package?

[ ] Yes. [X] No.

Announcement:

[ ] Notice of Funding of Opportunity (NOFO)

[ ] Grants.gov Announcement

[ ] Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)

[ ] Request for Application (RFA)

[X] Notice of Funding of Announcement (NOFA) (Announced in the Federal Register)

[ ] Notice of Solicitation of Application (NOSA)

[ ] Notice of Awards

[ ] Other Funding Announcement Types: __________________________________

Is the agency asking any questions of a sensitive nature? If yes, provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private. Include the reasons justifying why the agency considers the questions necessary, the specific uses to be made of the information, the explanation to be given to persons from whom the information is requested, and any steps to be taken to obtain their consent.

[ ] Yes. [X] No.

If yes, additional info:

Certification:

I certify this grant or cooperative agreement to be true:

[X] Yes. [ ] No.

Burden Hours, Formats, and Reporting

Brief description of information being collected (project summary, NOA, etc.)	Forms number	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses per respondent	Total Annual Responses	Time per Response	Burden hours per responses
Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) Application	FSA-63	623,500	1	623,500	0.08	49,880
Customer Data Worksheet	AD-2047	4,540	1	4,540	0.05	227
Member Information for Legal Entities	CCC-901	225	1	225	0.502	113
Farm Operating Plan for an Entity	CCC-902E	2,270	1	2,270	0.50	1,135
Farm Operating Plan for an Individual	CCC-902I	6,250	1	6,250	0.50	3,125
75% of Averaged Gross Income (AGI) from Farming, Ranching, or Forestry Certification	CCC-943	31,175	1	31,175	0.50	15,588
Report of Acreage	CCC-578	18,160	1	18,160	0.170	3,087
Notice of Loss and Application for Payment (Part A and B only)	CC-576	1,820	1	1,820	0.080	146
TOTAL		688,500		688,500	0.10357	71,310

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