I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 6877
To amend section 1242 of the Food Security Act of 1985 to enhance and
update conservation practice standards, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
DECEMBER19, 2023
Ms. S
PANBERGER(for herself and Mr. NUNNof Iowa) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend section 1242 of the Food Security Act of 1985
to enhance and update conservation practice standards,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Streamlining Con-4
servation Practice Standards Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DELIVERY OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. 6
Section 1242(h) of the Food Security Act of 1985 7
(16 U.S.C. 3842(h)) is amended— 8
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(1) in the subsection heading, by striking ‘‘RE-1
VIEW’’ and inserting ‘‘ESTABLISHMENT AND RE-2
VIEW’’; 3
(2) in paragraph (1)— 4
(A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read 5
as follows: 6
‘‘(A) not later than 1 year after the date 7
of enactment of the Streamlining Conservation 8
Practice Standards Act, and at least every 5 9
years thereafter on a rolling basis, complete a 10
review of each conservation practice standard, 11
including engineering design specifications;’’; 12
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking 13
‘‘and’’ at the end; 14
(C) in subparagraph (D), by striking the 15
period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 16
and 17
(D) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(E) provide a process for public input on 19
each conservation practice standard under such 20
review, including a process for consideration of 21
State and local input; 22
‘‘(F) publicly post a summary of any input 23
received under subparagraph (E) and any deci-24
sions made relating to such input; and 25
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‘‘(G) revise any conservation practice 1
standard based on the results of such review, as 2
determined appropriate by the Secretary, and 3
publish any such revised standard.’’; 4
(3) by amending paragraph (3) to read as fol-5
lows: 6
‘‘(3) P
ROCESS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF IN -7
TERIM AND NEW CONSERVATION PRACTICE STAND -8
ARDS.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 10
after the date of enactment of the Streamlining 11
Conservation Practice Standards Act, the Sec-12
retary shall develop a streamlined process under 13
which the Secretary shall establish interim con-14
servation practice standards and new conserva-15
tion practice standards. 16
‘‘(B) D
EVELOPMENT.—In developing the 17
streamlined process under subparagraph (A), 18
the Secretary shall— 19
‘‘(i) ensure that the public can engage 20
with the Department of Agriculture, in-21
cluding by recommending interim conserva-22
tion practice standards; and 23
‘‘(ii) establish— 24
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‘‘(I) the types of data, metrics, 1
and other relevant information that 2
are necessary for the establishment of 3
interim conservation practice stand-4
ards and new conservation practice 5
standards; 6
‘‘(II) the process by which an in-7
terim conservation practice standard 8
may become a new conservation prac-9
tice standard; and 10
‘‘(III) specific requirements for 11
an expedited review of a new con-12
servation practice for the purpose of 13
establishing a new conservation prac-14
tice standard for such practice. 15
‘‘(C) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In establishing 16
an interim conservation practice standard or a 17
new conservation practice standard under this 18
subsection, the Secretary shall consider— 19
‘‘(i) input from State technical com-20
mittees on recommendations that identify 21
innovations or advancements in conserva-22
tion practices; 23
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‘‘(ii) technological advancements, in-1
cluding advancements from projects devel-2
oped under section 1240H; and 3
‘‘(iii) State and local input in the 4
form of— 5
‘‘(I) recommendations for interim 6
conservation practice standards; and 7
‘‘(II) partnership-led proposals 8
for new and innovative techniques to 9
facilitate implementing agreements 10
and grants under this title. 11
‘‘(D) T
RANSPARENCY.—The Secretary 12
shall make available on a public website a de-13
tailed description of the process for recom-14
mending, reviewing, and establishing interim 15
conservation practice standards and new con-16
servation practice standards under this para-17
graph.’’; 18
(4) in paragraph (4)— 19
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 20
(A)— 21
(i) by striking ‘‘Agriculture Improve-22
ment Act of 2018’’ and inserting ‘‘Stream-23
lining Conservation Practice Standards 24
Act’’; and 25
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(ii) by striking ‘‘a report on’’ and in-1
serting ‘‘a report detailing’’; 2
(B) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘ad-3
ministrative’’ and inserting ‘‘streamlined’’; 4
(C) in subparagraph (B), by striking 5
‘‘and’’ at the end; 6
(D) in subparagraph (C), by striking the 7
period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 8
(E) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(D) any other information the Secretary 10
determines useful to improve such streamlined 11
process for reviewing and establishing conserva-12
tion practice standards.’’; and 13
(5) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(5) F
UNDING.—The Secretary shall use fund-15
ing from the annual appropriations for conservation 16
operations of the Natural Resources Conservation 17
Service to carry out this subsection.’’. 18
SEC. 3. COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION. 19
Section 1241(j)(1)(A) of the Food Security Act of 20
1985 (16 U.S.C. 3841(j)(1)(A)) is amended by inserting 21
‘‘, including schedules for revising existing conservation 22
practice standards and establishing interim conservation 23
practice standards or new conservation practice standards 24
under section 1242(h)’’ before the semicolon at the end. 25
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SEC. 4. CONSERVATION INNOVATION GRANTS AND PAY-1
MENTS. 2
(a) C
OMPETITIVEGRANTS FORINNOVATIVECON-3
SERVATIONAPPROACHES.—Section 1240H(a)(1) of the 4
Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3839aa–8(a)(1)) 5
is amended to read as follows: 6
‘‘(1) G
RANTS.—Out of the funds made available 7
to carry out this subchapter, the Secretary may 8
award competitive grants that are intended to stimu-9
late development and evaluation of new and innova-10
tive approaches to leveraging the Federal investment 11
in environmental enhancement and protection, in 12
conjunction with agricultural production or forest re-13
source management, through the program, including 14
grants for the development and evaluation of new 15
and innovative technologies that may be incor-16
porated into conservation practice standards.’’. 17
(b) R
EPORTING AND DATABASE.—Section 18
1240H(d)(2)(A) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 19
U.S.C. 3839aa–8(d)(2)(A)) is amended— 20
(1) in clause (i)— 21
(A) by inserting ‘‘, including both manage-22
ment and structural conservation practices,’’ 23
after ‘‘conservation practices’’; and 24
(B) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 25
(2) by redesignating clause (ii) as clause (iii); 26
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(3) by inserting after clause (i) the following: 1
‘‘(ii) data that may be used to evalu-2
ate new and emerging technologies and 3
recommendations for State and regional 4
applications of such new and emerging 5
technologies; and’’; and 6
(4) in clause (iii), as so redesignated, by insert-7
ing ‘‘for consideration under the streamlined process 8
developed under section 1242(h)(3)’’ before the pe-9
riod at the end. 10
Æ
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