Sponsors (5)
The bill increases and makes more flexible payments to agricultural producers for water-conservation actions (including retroactive corrections), benefiting participating landowners but raising federal costs, risking subsidy concentration among larger producers, and constraining administrative flexibility.
Farmers and other producers participating in CRP/CREP can receive higher and retroactively recalculated payments for water-right retirements, partial dryland uses, and underpaid pre-enactment agreements, increasing compensation for conservation actions and correcting prior underpayments.
Eligible producers can receive full CREP rental payments because rental payments under 1231A are exempted from existing payment limits, increasing income for participants who previously had payments reduced by limit rules.
Producers in CRP/CREP agreements gain greater payment-timing flexibility by being allowed to allocate annual payments across contract years, helping with farm cash-flow planning.
Taxpayers and the federal budget face higher costs because increased and retroactive payments raise program outlays, which could crowd other spending or require higher appropriations.
Larger producers are likely to capture a bigger share of subsidies because exempting 1231A rental payments from payment limits can concentrate payments and reduce equity for smaller farms.
Making previously discretionary program elements mandatory and shifting standards to a 'conservation plan' reduces administrative flexibility for the Secretary, potentially limiting program targeting and the ability to adapt to local conditions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows variable CREP payment allocations, sets new water‑conservation payment rules (including higher pay for permanent water‑right retirement), requires retroactive rate increases, and exempts CREP rent from payment limits.
Introduced April 9, 2025 by Lauren Boebert · Last progress April 9, 2025
Amends the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) rules to let landowners choose how annual rental payments are allocated across agreement years, creates specific payment-rate rules for drought and water‑conservation agreements (including higher pay when water rights are permanently retired), requires the Secretary to retroactively increase payments on prior agreements that received less than the new computed rates, converts some USDA discretionary duties into mandatory duties, clarifies conservation-plan language, and exempts CREP rental payments from the statute’s general payment‑limitation rule.