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
To require the Natural Resources Conservation Service to review the national conservation practice standards, taking into consideration climate benefits, and for other purposes.
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.