S. 4912 · Where this bill is now
In committee
Introduced in the Senate, Jun 24, 2026
What this bill does
In plain words · AI-written from the official summaryOpens farmland to conservation payment program
The Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers to take sensitive land out of production and protect it. Right now, land that's subject to state or local environmental rules is often excluded from the program. This bill would allow that land to participate in the program anyway, so farmers could get paid for conservation even if they're already following local environmental requirements. There's an exception: if a court or administrative order imposed the requirement, the land would still be excluded.
How it affects you
Farmers with land subject to state or local environmental rules could benefit directly by becoming eligible for government payments to conserve their land. The change mainly affects agricultural producers in states and localities with environmental protections, potentially increasing their access to federal conservation funding.
Read the official summary (Introduced in Senate, Jun 24, 2026)
Building Up Farmland Frontiers for Ecological Resilience Act or the BUFFER Act
This bill provides that certain land (that is under state regulations) is eligible to participate under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Under CRP, the Department of Agriculture provides annual payments to agricultural producers to take highly erodible and environmentally sensitive land out of production and install resource-conserving practices.
Specifically, land otherwise eligible under the program remains eligible for enrollment even if a tribal, state, or other local law, ordinance, or other regulation requires any resource-conserving or environmental protection measure or practice. The bill includes an exception that makes the land ineligible under the program if the implementation requirement has been imposed by an administrative order or a court order.
Current regulations exclude from enrollment eligibility (with exceptions) land that is subject to tribal, state, or other local laws, ordinances, or other regulations that require any resource-conserving or environmental protection measures or practices.
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.
2nd SessionS. 4912
A BILL
BUFFER Act
Sponsor: Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Agriculture and Food · 1 version of the text
Sources: Congress.gov actions and votes · bill text from GovInfo · latest official action Jun 24, 2026: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.”