Climate Agricultural Conservation Practices Act

Climate Agricultural Conservation Practices Act

This bill requires the Natural Resources Conservation Service within the Department of Agriculture to consider climate benefits, such as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, in reviews or revisions of its conservation practice standards. (These standards provide guidance and set out minimum quality criteria for implementing federally funded conservation practices.)

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2757 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2757

  To require the Natural Resources Conservation Service to review the 
  national conservation practice standards, taking into consideration 
               climate benefits, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 22, 2021

 Ms. Brownley introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                        Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require the Natural Resources Conservation Service to review the 
  national conservation practice standards, taking into consideration 
               climate benefits, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Climate Agricultural Conservation 
Practices Act''.

SEC. 2. CONSIDERATION OF CLIMATE BENEFITS IN CONSERVATION PRACTICE 
              STANDARDS.

    Section 1242(h) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 
3842(h)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1)--
                    (A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``1 year after 
                the date of enactment of the Agriculture Improvement 
                Act of 2018'' and inserting ``5 years after the date of 
                enactment of the Climate Agricultural Conservation 
                Practices Act'';
                    (B) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``; and'' and 
                inserting a semicolon;
                    (C) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period at 
                the end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(E) evaluate the climate benefits of the 
                standards.'';
            (2) in paragraph (3)(B), by striking ``conservation 
        innovations and'' and inserting ``climate benefits, 
        conservation innovations, and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) Climate benefit defined.--In this subsection, the 
        term `climate benefit' means--
                    ``(A) a reduction in agricultural greenhouse gas 
                emissions;
                    ``(B) an increase in carbon sequestration; or
                    ``(C) mitigation against, or adaptation to, 
                increased weather volatility.''.
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