Farm Bill Legislative Side-By-Side

This briefing by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) provides a legislative side-by-side comparison between current law and the House Agriculture Committee's amended text (May 2024) for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The document details the program's purpose of providing technical and financial assistance to agricultural and forest producers to adopt conservation activities, with specific highlights on climate-friendly practices and funding allocations from the 2018 Farm Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act.

• The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) supports climate-friendly agricultural practices designed to sequester carbon or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, specifically mentioning agroforestry, cover crops, and rotational livestock grazing. It also includes the Grassland Conservation Initiative, established by the 2018 Farm Bill to improve wildlife habitat, water quality, and soil health on grazing lands.
• Funding for the CSP was authorized to increase gradually under the 2018 Farm Bill, reaching $1 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2023, a level that was extended through FY 2024. Additionally, the Inflation Reduction Act provided $3.25 billion in total allocations for the program, distributed across FY 2023 ($250 million), FY 2024 ($500 million), FY 2025 ($1 billion), and FY 2026 ($1.5 billion).
• The House Agriculture Committee's May 2024 amended text proposes several changes to current law, including shortening the program's duration from fiscal years 2019 through 2031 to 2019 through 2029. It also suggests updating the payment limitation period to cover fiscal years 2025 through 2029, while maintaining the aggregate payment cap of $200,000 per person or legal entity (excluding Indian tribes).
• The House version of the legislation proposes expanding the criteria for supplemental payments. While current law provides additional payments (at least 150 percent of the annual payment amount) for advanced grazing management and resource-conserving crop rotations, the House text adds 'precision agriculture conservation activities' as an eligible category for these supplemental payments.
• The House text introduces a new section for 'State Assistance for Soil Health,' which would allocate $100 million annually from fiscal years 2025 through 2029. These grants would be available to eligible States and Indian Tribes to implement soil health programs, with priority given to those possessing a climate action plan that includes soil health.
• Under the proposed State Assistance for Soil Health grants, individual grant amounts are capped at the lower of $5 million or a specific percentage of implementation costs: 50 percent for State soil health programs and 75 percent for Tribal soil health programs.

APA

Bertrand, S., & Pouy, N. (2024). Farm Bill Legislative Side-By-Side. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/files/Side-by-Side-Farm-Bill-2024-Conservation-Stewardship-Program-CSP.pdf

Chicago

Bertrand, Savannah, and Nicole Pouy. Farm Bill Legislative Side-By-Side. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2024. https://www.eesi.org/files/Side-by-Side-Farm-Bill-2024-Conservation-Stewardship-Program-CSP.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bertrand |first1=Savannah |last2=Pouy |first2=Nicole |title=Farm Bill Legislative Side-By-Side |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=3 June 2024 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/Side-by-Side-Farm-Bill-2024-Conservation-Stewardship-Program-CSP.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bertrand2024farm, author = {Bertrand, Savannah and Pouy, Nicole}, title = {{Farm Bill Legislative Side-By-Side}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/Side-by-Side-Farm-Bill-2024-Conservation-Stewardship-Program-CSP.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }