# Plain Language Summary: Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2025

This bill makes changes to a federal program that pays farmers and landowners to set aside their land for conservation purposes instead of farming it. The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is designed to protect soil, water, and wildlife by taking environmentally sensitive land out of production. The bill expands what farmers can do with their land while still participating in the program and adjusts how much money they receive for doing so.

One major change allows farmers to use their enrolled land for dryland farming and grazing in certain situations, particularly in areas dealing with drought or water shortages. Previously, the program was more restrictive about what activities could happen on protected land. Now, if a farmer agrees to retire their water rights permanently or shift to dryland practices, they can still earn payments from the government. The bill also changes how those payments are calculated—farmers who switch from irrigated farming to dryland farming will receive the difference between what they would have earned under each system, essentially compensating them for the reduced productivity. For agreements already in place that used lower payment rates, the government will go back and recalculate them using the new, higher rates.

Additionally, the bill gives farmers more flexibility in how they receive their annual payments. Instead of getting the same amount each year, farmers can now choose to receive different payment amounts in different years of their agreement, allowing them to better manage their finances. The bill also removes a cap on how much money individual farmers can receive from this program, meaning there's no longer a limit on total payments to any single person or operation. These changes are intended to make the program more attractive to farmers, particularly those in water-stressed regions, while still achieving conservation goals.

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2025

Boebert, Lauren

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2025This bill revises the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), which is a component of the Farm Service Agency's (FSA's) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). CREP is a public-private partnership program which allows states, tribal governments, and nonprofit and private entities to partner with FSA to implement CRP practices. CRP is a land conservation program that provides an annual rental payment to farmers in exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and planting species that will improve environmental health and quality.The bill specifies that dryland agricultural uses and grazing are included as appropriate practices under CREP.The bill also allows a land owner or operator to elect to determine the annual payment amount allocated for each year of a CREP agreement, instead of a fixed payment per year for the contract period.For drought and water conservation agreements that include the permanent retirement of water rights, annual payment rates must be equal to the irrigated acre payment rates determined by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). In the case of an agreement that permits dryland agricultural uses, the annual payment rates must be equal to the difference between the irrigated acre payment rates and the dryland acre payment rates determined by USDA. The payment formula is retroactive for certain&nbsp;existing drought and water conservation agreements.Further, the bill exempts CREP payments from the $50,000 annual payment limitation under CRP.