Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2025

This bill updates the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), which pays farmers to take sensitive land out of production and plant things that help the environment. CREP is run with help from states, tribes, and private partners under the larger Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). It gives farmers more flexibility in how their yearly payments are spread out, clarifies that dryland farming and grazing can be allowed under certain agreements, and adjusts how payments work for projects that save water, including when water rights are permanently retired. It also lifts the usual $50,000 yearly payment cap for CREP agreements, so larger projects aren’t limited by that ceiling.

Key points

• Who is affected: Farmers and ranchers in CREP, plus state, tribal, and private partners working on conservation projects.
• What changes:
  • Lets landowners choose how to divide their annual payments across the years of a CREP contract.
  • For agreements that retire water rights, sets payments at the irrigated-acre rate; for allowed dryland uses, sets payments to the difference between irrigated and dryland rates, with some existing contracts adjusted upward using the new formula.
  • Confirms dryland farming and grazing can be included as appropriate practices under CREP.
  • Exempts CREP payments from the $50,000 annual cap under CRP.
• When: Changes take effect if the bill becomes law; the new payment formula applies retroactively to certain existing water conservation agreements.