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Politiparty

118th Congress Agriculture and Food

H.R. 4213: Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2023

Introduced

  1. Introduced (completed)Jun 20, 2023
  2. Passed House (not reached)
  3. Passed Senate (not reached)
  4. To the President (not reached)
  5. Became law (not reached)

Summary

Introduced in House, Jun 20, 2023

This bill revises the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), which is a component of the Farm Service Agency's (FSA's) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). CREP is a public-private partnership program which allows states, tribal governments, and nonprofit and private entities to partner with FSA to implement CRP practices. CRP is a land conservation program that provides an annual rental payment to farmers in exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and planting species that will improve environmental health and quality.

The bill specifies that dryland agricultural uses and grazing are included as appropriate practices under CREP.

The bill also allows a land owner or operator to elect to determine the annual payment amount allocated for each year of a CREP agreement, instead of a fixed payment per year for the contract period.

Read the full summary

For drought and water conservation agreements that include the permanent retirement of water rights, annual payment rates must be equal to the irrigated acre payment rates determined by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). In the case of an agreement that permits dryland agricultural uses, the annual payment rates must be equal to the difference between the irrigated acre payment rates and the dryland acre payment rates determined by USDA. The payment formula is retroactive for certain existing drought and water conservation agreements.

Further, the bill exempts CREP payments from the $50,000 annual payment limitation under CRP.

Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Roll calls

0 votes on this bill

No roll call votes have been held on this bill.

Amendments

0 offered

No amendments were offered to this bill.

Cosponsors

1

Bipartisan support.

Who scored on this bill

6 points earned
  1. 1Ken Buck R-CO SponsorDrew cross-party cosponsors, introduced2 events+6
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Introductions and cosponsorships count toward weekly caps and show no points.

History

  1. Jun 20, 2023Introduced in the House by Ken Buck.
Show the full action history (4 actions)
  1. Jun 14, 2024ASSUMING FIRST SPONSORSHIP - Ms. Caraveo asked unanimous consent that she may hereafter be considered as the first sponsor of H.R. 4213, a bill originally introduced by Representative Buck, for the purpose of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII. Agreed to without objection.
  2. Aug 21, 2023Referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology.
  3. Jun 20, 2023Introduced in House
  4. Jun 20, 2023Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.