The House and Senate Agriculture Committees each approved their respective long-term farm bill reauthorizations this month, and both measures would preserve the ability of water and wastewater utilities to partner with local farmers on cooperative projects to protect water quality.
The conservation titles of the House and Senate farm bills closely reflect the farm legislation that each committee approved in 2012, but which never became law. Both proposals would achieve billions of dollars in savings by consolidating 23 existing USDA conservation programs down to 13 – including by folding the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP) into a new Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). AWEP currently allows local stakeholders to partner with farmers to compete for USDA assistance to fund water quality protection projects, and the proposed RCPP would continue to offer these opportunities. AMWA and a coalition of water utility and environmental organizations wrote to Senators in support of the RWEP program this month.
Some differences do remain between the House and Senate proposals, as the RCPP program in the Senate Agriculture Committee-approved farm bill (S. 954) is slightly more expansive than the House version (H.R. 1947). The Senate’s RCPP specifies that municipal water and wastewater providers are eligible to partner with farmers on projects applying for funding, even though water and wastewater systems are already eligible as a “unit of local government.” Additionally, the Senate measure specifically lists “nutrient management and sediment reduction” activities as projects eligible for RCPP assistance.
The full Senate is expected to hold a final vote on S. 954 by early June. House leaders have announced no timeframe for acting on H.R. 1947, though Agriculture Committee leaders in both chambers are hoping to have a farm bill finalized before the current measure expires on September 30.