Farm Bill advances through House Committee

[Laura Bies]

Each year, Farm Bill Conservation Programs provide $6 billion in conservation funding to improve habitat, access, and soil and water quality on private lands across the United States. Every five years (or so), the Congress develops and passes a new Farm Bill. The 2018 Farm Bill expired at the end of September, and Congress has yet to finalize the new bill.

Recently, however, some progress has been made, with the Senate Agriculture Committee releasing a draft bill, and the House Agriculture Committee  formally releasing a bill and advancing it through the committee yesterday.

Under both versions of the Farm Bill, the conservation programs that provide key benefits to wildlife, including birds, would see funding increases. Both the House bill and the Senate draft would pull unspent money from the Inflation Reduction Act’s conservation provisions, about $14 billion, and put it in the Farm Bill conservation instead. The Senate would maintain the Inflation Reduction Act’s requirement that it be targeted at climate-smart programs, but the House bill would not.

With a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a Democrat-controlled Senate, the final bill will need to be a compromise that can garner bipartisan support. Time is running short for those negotiations, though, with the upcoming presidential elections limiting the time Congress has to work on the bill.

Learn more about the Farm Bill and its effect on wildlife here and here. Read more about the benefits to birds specifically here.

 

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