Conservation programs to get baseline boost under House reconciliation bill

Four major farm bill conservation programs would see a significant, permanent boost to their funding levels under the sweeping budget reconciliation bill that Republicans pushed through the House. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed the House last Thursday on a party-line vote includes about $14 billion in unspent funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and the Conservation Stewardship Program. The reconciliation bill would incorporate the funding into the farm bill baseline for each of those programs. 

Under the IRA, the conservation funding was supposed to be allocated over a four-year period, fiscal 2023 through fiscal 2026, and it would have had no long-term impact on funding levels for the four programs. The GOP bill uses budget rules to create permanent funding increases for the programs by spreading the money out over a longer period. The tradeoff of the GOP plan is less money upfront and more down the road. 

“I think the big thing is there’s less conservation money in the near term,” said retired farm policy consultant Ferd Hoefner. "They reinvest the money in the long term."

Through the House’s bill, ACEP’s $450 million annual budget authority would increase to $700 million by 2031, while RCPP’s would go from $300 million to $450 million, according to a House GOP staffer. CSP’s annual budget authority of around $1 billion annually would rise to $1.375 billion by 2031, while budget authority for EQIP would rise from $2.025 billion to $3.255 billion. 

Under the bill, the four programs’ baseline would be increased into perpetuity by an aggregate of 54% annually, the staffer said. As a whole, the farm bill’s overall conservation title — which also includes the Conservation Reserve Program and other conservation programs — would see a 34% annual increase to baseline funding when considering the increase for RCPP, CSP, ACEP and EQIP.

However, due to scoring rules for budget reconciliation bills, there will be a $1.75 billion difference between what would have been available through the IRA’s lifespan and what can be added to the farm bill baseline. That’s because the budget window for the bill ends in 2034, and the Congressional Budget Office views anything the committee does in 2031 as locked in through the end of the budget window, the staffer said.

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“It’s exciting to have it … added to the baseline for all perpetuity,” House Ag Committee Chair Glenn Thompson said of the funding, adding that it will put the conservation title “in a really good place.”

Despite their billion-dollar budgets, EQIP and CSP have traditionally been oversubscribed, forcing USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service to turn away many applicants. In fiscal 2024 the additional IRA funding allowed a greater share of applicants to get in, according to an Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy analysis of the USDA data that was shared with Agri-Pulse.

Between 43% and 44% of all EQIP applicants were able to secure contracts through the program in FY24, an increase of between 18% and 19% from the year prior. Meanwhile, between 53% and 54% of CSP applicants were awarded contracts that year, an increase of between 22% and 24% from the year prior. 

“There’s a huge demand from producers to put these dollars on the ground, so I think it’s great to keep investing in the conservation title,” said Colorado cattle and hay producer Maggie Hanna, who added that she also believes it's important for lawmakers to keep moving forward with a full farm bill.

Of 1,807 likely voters in Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and South Dakota, 72% said they either strongly or somewhat supported the $20 billion increase in conservation funding provided through the IRA, according to a new poll commissioned by the conservation organization Invest In Our Land. Thirteen percent either somewhat or strongly opposed the additional funding. 

Climate-related restrictions drop off program funding

The House bill strips away language that currently only allows the IRA money to fund practices categorized by the USDA as "climate-smart.” Fifty-five of NRCS’s 167 recognized conservation practices are currently classified as climate-smart, according to former NRCS Chief Dave White.

White, who served during the Obama administration, said he is “over the moon” that the House incorporated the IRA funding into the baseline for the farm bill conservation title. He believes removing the climate guardrails will have a “negligible impact" because of the wide array of practices that are already considered climate smart. 

“I think it’s really best with those sideboards out, because I think the state technical committees and the local work groups, they should decide what conservation practices work best for the resource concerns in their area,” White said.

But Michael Happ, the program associate for climate and rural communities at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said is important for the climate guardrails to remain to ensure that funded practices provide a climate-related benefit. “I think we should maybe adjust the climate-smart list, but I think the guardrails are important and we want to see those stay in place,” Happ said.

Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., hasn't said how he would seek to modify the House-passed reconciliation bill, but he sought to include the IRA conservation funding in the Senate farm bill last Congress, also without its current climate provisions. A source familiar with Boozman's plans said there are active discussions about including the IRA funding in the Senate's version of the reconciliation bill.

Senate GOP leaders haven't said whether they will move the bill through committees or simply modify the House-passed bill and put it on the Senate floor. 

“Conservation programs have traditionally … had pretty wide bipartisan support, so if the Senate can move a bill through reconciliation, then it’s entirely possible this conservation money hangs on until the end,” said Callie Eideberg, a principal at the Vogel Group and a former Democratic staffer for Senate Ag. "Folks across the board, across the spectrum want to see these dollars included and there’s not really any detractors out there.”

The Senate does have the Byrd rule to consider, which stipulates that reconciliation bills can only increase or decrease spending and not write new policies. However, because it’s the minority’s job to object to provisions they believe may violate the Byrd rule, provisions that Senate Ag Committee ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., supports may not be challenged, Eideberg said.

“The objection has to be raised by the minority,” Eideberg said. “The parliamentarian is more of an adjudicator in this space."

Still, Happ said some senators may be wary of enacting major changes to agricultural programs outside of the farm bill, which could present questions about how the farm bill process proceeds for future cycles. 

Making such large changes to the conservation spending through reconciliation rather than the farm bill would set a new precedent, said University of Illinois professor Jonathan Coppess. He said that may put the conservation title at risk of being raided by lawmakers seeking money for use in future reconciliation bills. 

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