You can’t make hay unless the sun is shining. If the Farm Bill is hay, and the sunshine is time left in Congress’s schedule, then the sunshine is waning for a new Farm Bill to be passed before the current bill’s Sept. 30 expiration date. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Congress did the same thing last year – instead of writing and passing a new Farm Bill in 2023, Congress extended the five-year 2018 Farm Bill for a sixth year. If the 2018 Farm Bill is extended for a seventh year, Congress will be leaving money on the table that could have gone toward climate solutions.
To say that Congress hasn’t done anything Farm Bill-related would be inaccurate. The Republicans on the House Committee on Agriculture wrote a Farm Bill that passed out of committee in May, while the Democrats in the Senate have a detailed outline of a Farm Bill proposal but have not released bill text. This is the impasse we have been in for months. The House Agriculture Committee went forward with a bill they know cannot pass the full chamber, and stepped over several red lines outlined by the Senate. In fact, the House Speaker in setting priorities for the last days of this legislative session did not include the Farm Bill.
IATP wrote about ways in which the House Farm Bill falls short of what is needed for a fair food and farm system. Beyond that, the House has wasted valuable time that should have been spent finding lasting solutions for climate resilience on U.S. farms.
Both the Senate and the House propose incorporating what is left of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) $20 billion for climate smart agriculture and forestry into the baseline of the Farm Bill. Baselines have historically restricted Congress from adding money to any particular title. The IRA did something almost unprecedented: It went outside the Farm Bill to add money to working lands conservation programs. In the next Farm bill, Congress has an opportunity to leverage these IRA dollars to increase the baseline for conservation spending. In short, this would mean these additional funds for working lands conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) would continue well into the future instead of wrapping up in 2031. While there are significant differences in how the funds are incorporated (the House removes guardrails around climate change; the Senate keeps them), bringing IRA funds into baseline is important for long-term investment in on-farm conservation.
Figure 1 shows how IRA spending stair-steps up over time before peaking in Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26). FY26 is the last year that new IRA contracts will be sent out, meaning that between FY26 and FY31, the funding will gradually step back down to existing baseline. As IATP has shown in our Closed Out series, the existing baseline is inadequate for meeting the farmer demand for EQIP and CSP. While IRA funds chip away at some of the backlog of funding in the short term, allowing IRA funding to expire risks leaving future conservationists out of needed support. Additionally, in our recent research, we have found that demand for EQIP and CSP continues to grow – in FY23, more farmers were served by the programs, but a lower percentage of applicants were accepted into the programs. While more farmers were let in the door, an even greater number lined up to be let in.
Figure 1
Should we spend the money now while we have it, funding as many climate-smart practices as possible before the political landscape changes? Using calculations from the Congressional Budget Office, incorporating IRA funds into the Farm Bill baseline now while the political will exists, we find $1 billion of additional funding each year for conservation programs. It is important with this extended time horizon that conservation payments keep pace with inflation, and that Congress designs a Farm Bill that does not shortchange farmers in the 2040s, who will almost certainly be farming in a changed climate from today.
Conservation has historically been bipartisan, with members of both parties seeing programs such as EQIP and CSP as essential to helping build soil health, conserve resources for future generations, and provide farmers with needed financial support. While important differences exist between the parties on how best to implement conservation programs and which types of conservation to prioritize, it is remarkable that, despite split control of Congress, both the House and Senate have made efforts to keep funding robust going well into the future.
Keeping IRA funds on track to be spent down by FY31 is not a risk-free strategy either. A future United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) secretary could pressure Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) not to send out any climate-smart funding. Considering the IRA and its climate-smart agriculture provisions are a key policy of the current administration, it would not be surprising to see efforts to keep the money from being spent, especially if there is a change of leadership at USDA where leaders do not prioritize climate change. Efforts to roll out IRA funds could also be hampered by staff attrition, something USDA has witnessed when past Congresses and Secretaries have attempted to shrink the department.
Of course, while climate change is a pressing issue and resources are needed to combat it and build resilience for farmers, it is important that NRCS is equitable in its distribution of funds. Many farmers of color, as well as operators of small and organic farms, have been closed out of NRCS program funding in the past, and it will take a lot of effort and time to build the relationships between NRCS and these farmers. As NRCS continues to face staffing shortages and issues with turnover, a quick deluge of funding benefits those who already know how to navigate NRCS and its application processes, leaving out many who need targeted outreach.
Is anything else affected if Congress misses its Sept. 30 deadline?
While Congress will leave money on the table if it fails to pass a Farm Bill by Sept. 30, programs such as EQIP and CSP will continue to operate normally. However, there are other important Farm Bill programs that will shut down. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which takes marginal land out of production and has benefits for wildlife habitat, water quality, and climate resilience/mitigation, will be statutorily forbidden from operating past Sept. 30. Scholarship funds to Historically Black Land Grant Universities will cease as well, along with programs serving organic farmers and those doing on-farm research. The food and farm system is complex, and the Farm Bill is an important part of it in the United States. The failure to pass a Farm Bill jeopardizes aid to those who need it in addition to climate and conservation efforts.
Climate change is not expected to wrap up by 2031, and our agriculture conservation spending should reflect that. Climate change will continue to be a challenge for farmers in every region of the country, and EQIP and CSP remain good options for helping farmers adapt to the new climate change reality while building soil health and potentially reducing emissions. IATP urges Congress to act before Sept. 30 to pass a Farm Bill that ensures enhanced conservation funding well into the future. Otherwise we will have squandered a good opportunity and let the hay sit in the field, despite plenty of warning about the rain.
