September 9, 1997

INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM: R&D-97-066
     
TO:      All Reinsured Companies
         All Risk Management Field Office
         FSA Headquarters, Program Delivery and Field Operations
     
FROM:    Tim B. Witt         /s/ Timothy J. Hoffmann (for)
         Deputy Administrator
     
SUBJECT: Second Assignment of Farm Service Agency (FSA) Policies
     
BACKGROUND:
     
On May 23, 1997, Secretary Glickman directed that all catastrophic
coverage (CAT) policies sold by the Farm Service Agency's (FSA) county
offices be transferred to reinsured companies participating in the crop
insurance program for 1998.  A lottery process was used to assign
policies to companies.  The lottery was run shortly after the
Secretary's announcement, using 1997 data that had been supplied to the
Risk Management Agency (RMA) through May 10, 1997.  RMA used the 1997
data file, in part to avoid annoying producers who had already canceled
their coverage, which many criticized when evaluating the previous
14-State transfer process.  The 1997 data file contained cancellations
and new policies, but has since been updated as additional FSA data have
been received.
     
During the Single Delivery Transition National Committee meeting held
August 14, 1997, some of the problems reported to RMA's 800 number were
discussed and led to a review of the number of policies now in the 1997
FSA data file compared with what had been there at the time of the
lottery.  RMA determined that there are now approximately 13,000
additional producers in the data file (Note:  One producer may have more
than one policy since each crop is insured separately).  In addition,
approximately 600 of the 1998 Florida citrus fruit policies, which were
purchased new this year from the FSA county offices, have not been
assigned.  Of the approximately 13,000 policies, over 8,000 are in
Kentucky and Tennessee.  The next two largest States are Virginia and
Missouri with about 500 producers each.
     
ACTION:
     
A second lottery for these policies will now be conducted no later than
the week of September 15, 1997.  The same procedure as outlined in
Bulletin MGR-97-024 will be followed in assigning these remaining
policies.