S. 1389 · Where this bill is now
In committee
Introduced in the Senate, Apr 9, 2025
What this bill does
In plain words · AI-written from the official summaryConservation program expands farmer payment options
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program helps farmers and landowners protect sensitive environmental land by paying them to stop farming certain areas and plant species that improve nature. This bill updates that program by allowing dryland farming and grazing as approved practices, letting landowners choose how to spread their payments across years instead of getting a fixed amount each year, and changing how much farmers get paid for agreements involving water conservation or permanent retirement of water rights.
How it affects you
If you're a farmer or landowner enrolled in this conservation program, you'd have more flexibility in how you receive payments and potentially access more payment options depending on your land type and agreement. Most other people won't see direct effects from this bill, though it aims to support land conservation efforts across the country.
Read the official summary (Introduced in Senate, Apr 9, 2025)
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2025
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.
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 AI (Claude) using only the official summary by the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress’s nonpartisan research staff. It can miss nuance, so check the official summary and the bill text for details.
1st SessionS. 1389
A BILL
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2025
Sponsor: Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) · Introduced Apr 9, 2025 · Agriculture and Food · 1 version of the text
Sources: Congress.gov actions and votes · bill text from GovInfo · latest official action Apr 9, 2025: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.”