II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 795
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to exclude prior converted
cropland from the definition of ‘‘navigable waters’’, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. R
OUNDS(for himself, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. THUNE, Mr. HOEVEN, and Mr.
M
ARSHALL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works
A BILL
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ex-
clude prior converted cropland from the definition of
‘‘navigable waters’’, 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 ‘‘Farmers Freedom Act 4
of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. PRIOR CONVERTED CROPLAND. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 502 of the Federal Water 7
Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended by 8
striking paragraph (7) and inserting the following: 9
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‘‘(7) NAVIGABLE WATERS.— 1
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘navigable 2
waters’ means the waters of the United States, 3
including the territorial seas. 4
‘‘(B) E
XCLUSION.—The term ‘navigable 5
waters’ does not include prior converted crop-6
land. 7
‘‘(C) A
SSOCIATED DEFINITIONS.—For pur-8
poses of this paragraph: 9
‘‘(i) A
BANDONED.—The term ‘aban-10
doned’, with respect to an area that was 11
prior converted cropland, means that the 12
area was not used for, or in support of, ag-13
ricultural purposes at least once in the im-14
mediately preceding 5-year period, as de-15
termined by the Administrator. 16
‘‘(ii) A
GRICULTURAL PURPOSE .—The 17
term ‘agricultural purpose’ includes land 18
use that makes the production of an agri-19
cultural product possible, including— 20
‘‘(I) grazing and haying; 21
‘‘(II) idling land for conservation 22
use, such as habitat management, pol-23
linator and wildlife management, 24
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•S 795 IS
water storage and supply manage-1
ment, and flood management; 2
‘‘(III) irrigation tailwater stor-3
age; 4
‘‘(IV) farm-raised fish produc-5
tion; 6
‘‘(V) cranberry bogs; 7
‘‘(VI) nutrient retention; and 8
‘‘(VII) idling land for soil recov-9
ery after natural disasters such as 10
hurricanes and drought. 11
‘‘(iii) P
RIOR CONVERTED CROP -12
LAND.— 13
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The term 14
‘prior converted cropland’ means any 15
area that, prior to December 23, 16
1985, was drained or otherwise ma-17
nipulated for the purpose, or having 18
the effect, of making production of an 19
agricultural product possible, includ-20
ing such areas that are designated as 21
prior converted cropland by the Sec-22
retary of Agriculture. 23
‘‘(II) E
XCLUSION.—The term 24
‘prior converted cropland’ does not in-25
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clude an area that is abandoned and 1
has reverted to wetlands. 2
‘‘(iv) W
ETLANDS.—The term ‘wet-3
lands’ means an area that is inundated or 4
saturated by surface or ground water at a 5
frequency and duration sufficient to sup-6
port, and that under normal circumstances 7
do support, a prevalence of vegetation typi-8
cally adapted for life in saturated soil con-9
ditions, including swamps, marshes, bogs, 10
and similar areas.’’. 11
(b) P
ROHIBITION ONCHANGE INUSEPOLICY.—In 12
carrying out the amendments made by this section, the 13
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency 14
and the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief 15
of Engineers, may not, with respect to prior converted 16
cropland, carry out the change in use policy described in 17
the final rule of the Environmental Protection Agency and 18
the Corps of Engineers entitled ‘‘Revised Definition of 19
‘Waters of the United States’’’ (88 Fed. Reg. 3004 (Janu-20
ary 18, 2023)) or a substantially similar policy. 21
Æ
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