I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 575
To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to modify the delivery of technical
assistance, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY21, 2025
Mr. B
AIRD(for himself, Mr. SORENSEN, Mr. VASQUEZ, Mr. BOST, Mr. STEIL,
Ms. P
ETTERSEN, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. FINSTAD, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. FLOOD,
Mr. J
OHNSONof South Dakota, Mr. YAKYM, Mr. DAVISof North Caro-
lina, Ms. L
EEof Nevada, Mr. SCOTTFRANKLINof Florida, Ms. HOYLE
of Oregon, Mr. F
EENSTRA, Ms. BUDZINSKI, Mr. BACON, Ms. SALINAS,
Ms. S
CHRIER, and Mr. POCAN) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Agriculture A BILL
To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to modify the
delivery of technical assistance, 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 ‘‘Increased TSP Access 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DELIVERY OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. 6
Section 1242 of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 7
U.S.C. 3842) is amended— 8
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(1) in subsection (a)— 1
(A) by redesignating paragraph (2) as 2
paragraph (3); and 3
(B) by inserting after paragraph (1) the 4
following: 5
‘‘(2) N
ON-FEDERAL CERTIFYING ENTITY .—The 6
term ‘non-Federal certifying entity’ means a non- 7
Federal entity or State agency described in subpara-8
graph (A) or (B), respectively, of subsection (e)(4).’’; 9
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘science- 10
based, site-specific practices designed’’ and inserting 11
‘‘timely, science-based, and site-specific practice de-12
sign and implementation assistance’’; 13
(3) in subsection (d), by inserting ‘‘(including 14
private sector entities)’’ after ‘‘non-Federal entities’’; 15
(4) in subsection (e)— 16
(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘Food, 17
Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008’’ and in-18
serting ‘‘Increased TSP Access Act of 2025’’; 19
(B) in paragraph (3)— 20
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 21
‘‘ensure’’ and all that follows through ‘‘en-22
gineering,’’ and inserting ‘‘ensure that 23
third-party providers with expertise in the 24
technical aspects of conservation planning, 25
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watershed planning, environmental engi-1
neering, conservation practice design, im-2
plementation, and evaluation, or other 3
technical skills, as determined by the Sec-4
retary,’’; and 5
(ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting 6
‘‘by the Secretary’’ after ‘‘established’’; 7
and 8
(C) by striking paragraphs (4) and (5) and 9
inserting the following: 10
‘‘(4) C
ERTIFICATION.—The Secretary shall cer-11
tify a third-party provider through— 12
‘‘(A) a certification process administered 13
by the Secretary, acting through the Chief of 14
the Natural Resources Conservation Service; 15
‘‘(B) a non-Federal entity (other than a 16
State agency) approved by the Secretary to per-17
form the certification; or 18
‘‘(C) a State agency with statutory author-19
ity to certify, administer, or license profes-20
sionals in one or more fields of natural re-21
sources, agriculture, or engineering approved by 22
the Secretary to perform the certification. 23
‘‘(5) T
IMELY DECISIONS.—Not later than 10 24
business days after the date on which the Secretary 25
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receives a notification submitted by a non-Federal 1
certifying entity that the non-Federal certifying enti-2
ty has certified a third-party provider, the Secretary 3
shall— 4
‘‘(A) review the certification; and 5
‘‘(B) if the certification is satisfactory to 6
the Secretary, include the name of the third- 7
party provider on the registry of certified third- 8
party providers maintained by the Secretary. 9
‘‘(6) N
ON-FEDERAL CERTIFYING ENTITY PROC -10
ESS.— 11
‘‘(A) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 12
180 days after the date of enactment of the In-13
creased TSP Access Act of 2025, the Secretary 14
shall establish a process for the certification of 15
third-party providers by non-Federal certifying 16
entities, with the goal of increasing third-party 17
provider capacity, including the certification of 18
qualified agricultural retailers, cooperatives, 19
professional societies, service providers, and or-20
ganizations described in section 1265A(3)(B)(i). 21
‘‘(B) E
LIGIBILITY OF NON-FEDERAL CER-22
TIFYING ENTITIES.—In determining the eligi-23
bility of a non-Federal certifying entity under 24
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subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall con-1
sider— 2
‘‘(i) the ability of the non-Federal cer-3
tifying entity to assess qualifications of a 4
third-party provider and certify third-party 5
providers at scale; 6
‘‘(ii) the experience of the non-Federal 7
certifying entity in working with third- 8
party providers and eligible participants; 9
‘‘(iii) the expertise of the non-Federal 10
certifying entity in the technical and 11
science-based aspects of conservation deliv-12
ery described in paragraph (3)(A); 13
‘‘(iv) the history of the non-Federal 14
certifying entity in working with agricul-15
tural producers; and 16
‘‘(v) such other qualifications as the 17
Secretary determines to be appropriate. 18
‘‘(C) A
PPROVAL.—Not later than 40 busi-19
ness days after the date on which the Secretary 20
receives an application submitted by a non-Fed-21
eral certifying entity to certify third-party pro-22
viders under this section, the Secretary shall 23
make a decision on whether to approve the non- 24
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Federal certifying entity to certify third-party 1
providers. 2
‘‘(D) D
UTIES OF NON -FEDERAL CERTI-3
FYING ENTITIES.—A non-Federal certifying en-4
tity approved by the Secretary to certify third- 5
party providers shall— 6
‘‘(i) assess the ability of a third-party 7
provider to appropriately provide technical 8
assistance to eligible participants; 9
‘‘(ii) provide training to ensure that a 10
third-party provider certified by the non- 11
Federal certifying entity is qualified to 12
provide that technical assistance; 13
‘‘(iii) submit to the Secretary a timely 14
notice of— 15
‘‘(I) each third-party provider 16
certified by the non-Federal certifying 17
entity, for inclusion on the registry of 18
certified third-party providers main-19
tained by the Secretary; and 20
‘‘(II) each third-party provider 21
the certification of which is withdrawn 22
by the non-Federal certifying entity. 23
‘‘(7) S
TREAMLINED CERTIFICATION .—Not later 24
than 180 days after the date of enactment of the In-25
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creased TSP Access Act of 2025, the Secretary shall 1
provide a streamlined certification process for a 2
third-party provider that has an appropriate spe-3
cialty certification, including a certified crop advisor 4
certified by the American Society of Agronomy, a 5
professional engineer, or a holder of a technical cer-6
tification approved by the Secretary.’’; and 7
(5) in subsection (f)— 8
(A) in paragraph (2), in the matter pre-9
ceding subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘or a 10
non-Federal certifying entity’’ after ‘‘third- 11
party provider’’; 12
(B) by striking paragraph (3) and insert-13
ing the following: 14
‘‘(3) R
EVIEW.—Not later than 1 year after the 15
date of enactment of the Increased TSP Access Act 16
of 2025, and additionally thereafter at the discretion 17
of the Secretary, the Secretary shall— 18
‘‘(A) review certification requirements for 19
third-party providers; 20
‘‘(B) make any adjustments considered 21
necessary by the Secretary to improve participa-22
tion and the quality and effectiveness of con-23
servation practices implemented and adopted 24
with support from technical service providers; 25
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‘‘(C) conduct outreach to and receive input 1
from third-party providers, both that currently 2
participate in the program under this section 3
and those that no longer participate in the pro-4
gram, and entities, organizations, and associa-5
tions providing or supporting consultative serv-6
ices to agriculture, livestock, and forest pro-7
ducers to assess barriers and opportunities for 8
the use of third-party provider assistance for 9
improved conservation program delivery; and 10
‘‘(D) set a target utilization rate for third- 11
party providers.’’; 12
(C) in paragraph (4)(A)(i), by inserting 13
‘‘maintenance,’’ after ‘‘outreach,’’; and 14
(D) by striking paragraph (5) and insert-15
ing the following: 16
‘‘(5) P
AYMENT AMOUNTS .— 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 18
establish fair and reasonable amounts of pay-19
ments for technical services provided by third- 20
party providers at rates equivalent to, but that 21
do not exceed, technical assistance provided by 22
the Secretary. 23
‘‘(B) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In determining 24
fair and reasonable payment amounts under 25
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subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall consider 1
specialized equipment, frequency of site visits, 2
training, travel and transportation, and such 3
other factors as the Secretary determines to be 4
appropriate. 5
‘‘(C) E
XCLUSION.—A payment provided 6
under another Federal program directly to an 7
eligible participant for technical assistance pro-8
vided by a third-party provider certified under 9
this section shall be— 10
‘‘(i) excluded from cost-sharing re-11
quirements under the program under 12
which the payment was provided; and 13
‘‘(ii) equal to not more than 100 per-14
cent of the fair and reasonable payment 15
amount for the applicable technical assist-16
ance determined under subparagraph (B). 17
‘‘(6) T
RANSPARENCY.—Not later than 1 year 18
after the date of enactment of the Increased TSP 19
Access Act of 2025, the Secretary shall provide ac-20
cessible public information on— 21
‘‘(A) funds obligated to third-party pro-22
viders through— 23
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‘‘(i) contracts entered into between el-1
igible participants and individual third- 2
party providers; and 3
‘‘(ii) agreements with public and pri-4
vate sector entities to secure third-party 5
technical assistance; 6
‘‘(B) certification results, including— 7
‘‘(i) the number of third-party pro-8
viders certified by the Secretary; 9
‘‘(ii) the number of non-Federal certi-10
fying entities approved by the Secretary; 11
‘‘(iii) the number of third-party pro-12
viders certified by non-Federal certifying 13
entities; and 14
‘‘(iv) the number of third-party pro-15
viders certified based on State agency or 16
professional association credentialing; 17
‘‘(C) how third-party providers contribute 18
to the quality and effectiveness of conservation 19
practices implemented and adopted, and what 20
improvements are needed; and 21
‘‘(D) the target utilization rate set under 22
paragraph (3)(D) and how actual utilization 23
compares to that target rate.’’. 24
Æ
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