Sponsors (4)
Adds "natural climate solutions" as an eligible topic for USDA competitive research and extension grants, including practices that store carbon, cut emissions, and promote biodiversity.
Official title: To amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to provide for high-priority research and extension grants for natural climate solutions, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 9, 2026 by Andrew R. Garbarino · Last progress June 9, 2026
The bill channels federal support toward on-farm natural climate solutions—benefiting many farmers, rural water quality, researchers, and Indigenous stewardship—while raising fiscal costs and creating access hurdles for smaller or under-resourced producers and potentially shifting USDA research priorities.
Farmers and landowners can receive competitive federal grants to adopt practices that store carbon or reduce greenhouse gases on croplands, grasslands, wetlands, and forests, creating new revenue and incentives for climate-friendly management.
Grants can support practices that reduce agricultural runoff, which can improve water quality for downstream and rural communities.
Researchers and cooperative extension services receive funding priorities to study and promote biodiversity-enhancing and resilience-building land management practices, expanding science and outreach on sustainable agriculture.
Small and under-resourced farmers and rural communities may face burdens from required matching funds or administrative compliance to access grants, limiting who can benefit.
Taxpayers could face increased federal spending to fund these competitive grants because appropriation amounts are not specified, raising fiscal costs.
Prioritizing natural climate solutions research and funding could shift USDA research resources away from other priorities that are not expanded by this amendment.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new authorizing category for competitive research and extension grants at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support "natural climate solutions"—land management practices that store carbon or reduce greenhouse gas emissions on farms, forests, wetlands, grasslands, and soils. The grants may fund practices based on traditional ecological knowledge, actions that promote biodiversity and climate resilience, and measures that reduce runoff, and they operate under existing program rules for administration, matching, waivers, and consultation. The amendment simply adds this topic to the list of high-priority research and extension areas eligible for grants under the Secretary of Agriculture’s current authority; it does not itself appropriate funds and remains subject to existing statutory program requirements and oversight provisions.