Ausmus v. Perdue
Ausmus v. Perdue
Opinion of the Court
Pursuant to
BACKGROUND
The factual background is not disputed. Plaintiffs are farmers who produce winter wheat in Baca County, Colorado. ECF No. 1 at ¶¶ 1-8. They seek judicial review of an adverse decision of the Risk Management Agency, which was subsequently affirmed by NAD. The sole issue in this case is one of statutory interpretation. The Court must determine whether NAD properly determined that the Actual Production History ("APH") Yield Exclusion set out in
Section 11009 of the Farm Bill amended subparagraph 1508(g)(4)(C) of the Federal *1230Crop Insurance Act ("FCIA"). ECF No. 36 at ¶ 3. This amended section is commonly known as the APH Yield Exclusion.
Before this Court assesses the merits of these arguments at greater length, some background in the relevant statutes is necessary.
A. Federal Crop Insurance Act.
Congress enacted the FCIA in 1938 to provide crop insurance to farmers because private insurance companies "deemed all-risk crop insurance too great a commercial hazard." Stewart v. Fed. Crop Ins. Corp. , No. 4:09-CV-101,
A common form of crop insurance is called an APH-based policy. A.R. at 971-1019. These policies base their premium, insurance guaranty, and indemnity on a crop producer's average historical yields (APH).
The Farm Bill amended FCIA § 1508(g)(4) by adding a new subparagraph (C)-the APH Yield Exclusion.
The language establishing the APH Yield Exclusion reads:
(4) Adjustment in actual production history to establish insurable yields.
(A) Application . This paragraph shall apply whenever the corporation uses the actual production records of the producer to establish the producer's actual production history for an agricultural commodity for any of the 2001 and subsequent crop years.
...
(C) Election To Exclude Certain History .
(i) In General . Notwithstanding paragraph (2), with respect to 1 or more of the crop years used to establish the actual production history of an agricultural commodity of the producer, the producer may elect to exclude any recorded or appraised yield for any crop year in which the per planted acre yield of the agricultural commodity in the county of the producer was at least 50 percent below the simple average of the per planted acre yield of the agricultural commodity in the county during the previous 10 consecutive crop years.
(ii) Contiguous Counties . In any crop year that a producer in a county is eligible to make an election to exclude a yield under clause (i), a producer in a contiguous county is eligible to make such an election.
B. Procedural History.
Plaintiffs wished to insure their 2015 winter wheat crop. Believing that they were eligible to invoke the APH Yield Exclusion, Plaintiffs gave their crop insurance agents letters electing to exclude all eligible crop years for purposes of calculating their coverage. ECF No. 36 at ¶ 6. After receiving these letters from Plaintiffs and other crop producers, crop insurance providers contacted the Risk Management Agency requesting guidance on how to handle the APH Yield Exclusion elections concerning the 2015 winter wheat crop. See A.R. at 547-49. On October 31, 2014 the Risk Management Agency provided guidance that although it had authorized the APH Yield Exclusion for most crops for 2015, it did not authorize the APH Yield Exclusion for winter wheat. See
Plaintiffs challenged the directive as an adverse decision appealable to NAD.
*1232STANDARD OF REVIEW
Persons adversely affected by a decision of an agency within the USDA may appeal to the National Appeals Division. See
Under
the agency has relied on factors which Congress has not intended it to consider, entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem, offered an explanation for its decision that runs counter to the evidence before the agency, or is so implausible that it could not be ascribed to a difference in view or the product of agency expertise.
When an agency interprets its own ambiguous regulation, it is entitled to deference. Auer v. Robbins ,
If Congress' intent is not clear-in circumstances where the statute is silent or ambiguous-"the question for the court is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute." NISH v. Rumsfeld ,
ANALYSIS
The sole issue in this case is whether NAD properly determined that the APH Yield Exclusion was not immediately available to Plaintiffs upon the passage of the Farm Bill but was instead subject to the Risk Management Agency's discretion as to the timing of implementation. Because NAD's decision was based on statutory interpretation, this Court will engage in the two-step Chevron analysis to determine how much deference to give NAD's determination. See Mead Corp. ,
Under Chevron , the Court's first task is to determine whether the statute is silent or ambiguous concerning the issue before the Court.
Plaintiffs counter that Defendants' attempt to delineate the "application date" from an "implementation date" is nothing more than crafty legal gobbledygook. Plaintiffs contend that Congress did not explicitly address implementation in the APH Yield Exclusion, and therefore Congress intended it to be implicit within the "Application" provision. Accordingly, this case comes down to whether Congress intended that the APH Yield Exclusion's effective date as provided in § 1508(g)(4)(A) be distinct from its implementation date.
After reviewing the APH Yield Exclusion's "statutory language, the design of the statute as a whole and [ ] its object and policy," I conclude that Defendants' attempt to differentiate statutory effectiveness from implementation here is without merit. Crandon v. United States ,
A. The Text.
Defendants argue that there is no express language within the statute mandating implementation by the 2015 crop year. ECF No. 37 at 11. Therefore, they argue *1234that the statute "is not conclusive on whether it is self-executing." Id. at 16; see also Black's Law Dictionary 1566 (10th Ed. 2014) (defining self-executing as "effective immediately without the need of any type of implementing action.").
It is true that the APH Yield Exclusion does not include the word "implementation" or expressly denote an "implementation date." But this fact cuts in Plaintiffs' favor rather than Defendants'. "[C]ourts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there." Connecticut Nat. Bank v. Germain ,
Congress is experienced in providing that a statute be implemented on a date different than the effective date. For example, when Congress amended the FCIA in 2000, it made the amendments generally effective on the date of enactment but also made an exception in 14 provisions, where it explicitly allowed the agency flexibility in deciding when to implement the provisions. See Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-224, sec. 171,
B. Statutory Context and Legislative History.
Because this Court concludes that the text of the statute clearly and unambiguously decides the issue, it is unnecessary to analyze the statutory context and legislative history to decide the case. See Zuni Pub. Sch. Dist. No. 89 v. Dep't of Educ. ,
Defendants argue that viewing the APH Yield Exclusion as immediately implementable cannot be squared with other FCIA requirements that the agency establish underwriting rules, use sufficient actuarial data before offering insurance coverage, and operate the crop insurance program in an actuarially sound manner. ECF No. 37 at 15 (referencing § 1508(g)(1), § 1508(a)(1), § 1506(n) ). While immediate implementation of the APH Yield Exclusion undoubtedly created substantial logistical difficulties for the agency, the Court nevertheless must apply the statute as written. The Adkins court summarized this well:
*1235The administrative record reflects that the agency had much to do to prepare for the 2015 crop year, but that does not permit the Court to re-write the statute to permit the delay sought by the agency in this case. It is the role of Congress, not the courts, to write and enact statutory provisions. The Court's role is one of interpretation and enforcement, and in this instance, the Court [finds] legal error in the agency's decision with respect to the APH Yield Exclusion set out in § 1508(g)(4)(C).
Adkins , at 601.
Further, Defendants point to a few statements within the legislative history to support their contention that the APH Yield Exclusion was meant to be implemented on a date later than the effective date. ECF No. 37 at 16. The Court acknowledges that the legislative history cuts both ways in this case. However, courts turn to legislative history for guidance only if the text of the statute is ambiguous, and here it is not.
Based upon this Court's review of the plain text, I find that Congress directly spoke to the issue presented. The agency's decision to delay implementation of the APH Yield Exemption without clear Congressional direction constitutes legal error. The agency viewed Congressional silence as creating ambiguity, but this stands in direct opposition to Gozlon-Peretz 's binding precedent that silence with respect to an enactment date is a clear statement of immediate effectiveness. The APH Yield Exclusion should have been applied in time for Plaintiffs' 2015 winter wheat crop, and therefore Plaintiffs were wrongly denied a benefit to which they were entitled under § 1508(g)(4)(C).
ORDER
The Court REVERSES the National Appeals Division Director's decision and REMANDS for proper application of the APH Yield Exclusion.
Pub. L. No. 113-79,
Plaintiffs' Reply Brief notes that The Honorable Sam R. Cummings of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently issued a decision regarding the precise issue before this Court. See Adkins v. Vilsack ,
The Farm Bill also amended § 1508(g)(4) by re-designating subparagraph (C) to (D), and adding "or (C)" after "(B)" to the re-designated (D). See Pub. L. No. 113-79, sec. 11009, § 508(g),
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Glenn AUSMUS, Russell L. Ausmus, Dwayne Fritzler, Shirley Fritzler, Blake Gourley, Fara Gourley, Dean Jagers, and Jeff Self v. Sonny PERDUE, Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Steven C. Silverman, Director, National Appeals Division, and Heather Manzano, Acting Administrator of the Risk Management Agency and Manager of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation
- Status
- Published