Sponsors (5)
The bill extends program eligibility and clarifies rules for grazing lands to broaden conservation protections and legal clarity, but it also creates new compliance obligations and a tight 90-day rulemaking deadline that may impose costs and uncertainty—especially for small and limited-resource producers.
Farmers who graze livestock on cropland will become eligible for the program/requirements previously barred to grazing crops, increasing access to program benefits or protections for those producers.
Producers and state agencies: Brings grazing lands under uniform statutory rules, reducing regulatory gaps and making conservation or program standards clearer and more consistent.
Rural communities and grazing producers: Could improve environmental outcomes by extending soil, water, and conservation protections to grazing lands previously excluded.
Livestock producers who graze crops may face new compliance costs to meet program requirements now applied to grazing crops and grasses.
Producers and agencies: The 90-day deadline for issuing implementing rules risks hastily written regulations, creating uncertainty and additional administrative burdens for producers and state agencies.
Small and limited-resource farms could be disproportionately affected by expanded statutory coverage through new recordkeeping, enforcement, or administrative obligations.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Marion Michael Rounds · Last progress April 10, 2025
Expands the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) to cover crops and grasses that are used for grazing. The bill removes prior statutory exclusions for grazing crops from the NAP eligibility rules and requires the USDA to issue implementing regulations within 90 days of enactment.