Bill Details
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This bill would require the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service to review its national conservation practice standards and make sure climate benefits are considered. In simple terms, it asks the agency to look at whether conservation practices help cut greenhouse gas emissions, store more carbon in soil and plants, or help farms deal with more extreme and unpredictable weather. The bill is meant to make climate impact a regular part of how farm conservation standards are checked and updated.
- The review would happen within 5 years after the bill becomes law.
- The agency would need to evaluate whether conservation standards provide climate benefits, not just other conservation results.
- The bill defines climate benefits as reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, increasing carbon storage, or helping farms adapt to weather changes and volatility.
- It also updates the existing law so climate benefits are included alongside conservation innovations when standards are reviewed.
Official Summaries
Climate Agricultural Conservation Practices Act
This bill requires the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to consider climate benefits in reviews or revisions of its conservation practice standards. Climate benefits include a reduction in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, an increase in carbon sequestration, or mitigation against (or adaptation to) increased weather volatility.
As background, NRCS administers most of the Department of Agriculture conservation programs, which assist producers and landowners who wish to practice conservation on agricultural lands. The NRCS conservation practice standards provide guidance and set out minimum quality criteria for implementing federally funded conservation practices.
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1854 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1854
To require the Natural Resources Conservation Service to review the
national conservation practice standards, taking into consideration
climate benefits, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 5, 2025
Ms. Brownley (for herself, Ms. Castor of Florida, Ms. Salinas, and Ms.
Stansbury) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Agriculture
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Natural Resources Conservation Service to review the
national conservation practice standards, taking into consideration
climate benefits, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Climate Agricultural Conservation
Practices Act''.
SEC. 2. CONSIDERATION OF CLIMATE BENEFITS IN CONSERVATION PRACTICE
STANDARDS.
Section 1242(h) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C.
3842(h)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``1 year after
the date of enactment of the Agriculture Improvement
Act of 2018'' and inserting ``5 years after the date of
enactment of the Climate Agricultural Conservation
Practices Act'';
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``; and'' and
inserting a semicolon;
(C) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period at
the end and inserting ``; and''; and
(D) by adding at the end the following:
``(E) evaluate the climate benefits of the
standards.'';
(2) in paragraph (3)(B), by striking ``conservation
innovations and'' and inserting ``climate benefits,
conservation innovations, and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(5) Climate benefit defined.--In this subsection, the
term `climate benefit' means--
``(A) a reduction in agricultural greenhouse gas
emissions;
``(B) an increase in carbon sequestration; or
``(C) mitigation against, or adaptation to,
increased weather volatility.''.
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