YourVoice.Now Summary
EnvironmentYour MoneyFarmland already under a state or local conservation rule could still earn conservation reserve rent.
Environment
Land carrying a tribal, state, or local conservation requirement would count as eligible to enroll. The one exception: land where a court or an agency enforcement order imposed the practice stays out.
Your Money
The program pays a yearly rent to landowners who take land out of production and keep conservation cover on it. More farm owners would be able to sign up and collect that rent.
More about this bill
Say a state, tribal, or local rule already makes you protect part of your farmland. That land could still go into the conservation reserve program. The program pays landowners a yearly rent to take land out of crops and keep cover on it. Today that overlap can keep the land out. There is a limit. If a court order or an agency enforcement order is what requires the practice, the land would not qualify. The bill also drops a line that let the Agriculture Secretary judge whether one other kind of land counts.
Congressional Summary
Building Up Farmland Frontiers for Ecological Resilience Act or the BUFFER ActThis 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.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-07-02
- Date Added
- 2026-08-26
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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