Congress “must remove the climate restrictions” on $20 billion in funding that had been given to the USDA to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase climate resiliency, said two senior Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. Chairman Glenn Thompson and Indiana Rep. Jim Baird said the money should be available for all land stewardship practices.
“We can’t prioritize one natural resource concern over all others and we shouldn’t prioritize one solution above all others,” said Thompson, who objected last year to the focus on climate mitigation. Baird said “we shouldn’t completely reorient Title II (conservation) programs toward any one natural resource concern.”
The USDA received the money through the climate, health and tax law enacted last August. Conservation spending runs around $5 billion a year at present so the additional funds, available through fiscal 2031, would allow USDA to accelerate work in the area. Farmers routinely request far more cost-sharing money than is available through the programs.
“We must admit that some of this funding is unrealistic and would be better used by bringing it into the (farm bill) baseline and spread out over a more realistic timeframe,” said Thompson during a subcommittee hearing on conservation programs. “I also think we must remove the climate restrictions and let the locally led model continue without limitation.”
Farm-state lawmakers have had their eyes on the climate money for months as the only assured source of additional funding for the farm bill. There was interest in the House and Senate in moving the climate funding into the farm bill, if only as a way to “build” baseline — assuring more funding in the future under congressional score-keeping rules. If the money were moved, it also would open the door to re-programming some of it for other uses, assuming there was a bipartisan consensus.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that USDA will be able to spend $15.3 billion of the climate mitigation funds before the authorization lapses, said Baird. “I believe that as we conduct our review of the 2018 farm bill’s conservation title, we must examine this enormous influx in funding and how these dollars are being allocated by USDA,” he said.
The $20 billion for climate mitigation “represents the single largest investment in climate and clean energy solutions in American history,” said Terry Cosby, chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. “These additional funds are important investments for farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners to increase the resilience of their operations and increase carbon storage in the nation’s soils and trees.”
Included in the funding were $8.45 billion for the cost-sharing Environmental Quality Incentives Programs; $3.25 billion for the Conservation Stewardship Program, directed toward working lands; $4.95 billion for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which coordinates stewardship on multiple properties; $1.4 billion for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program; $1 billion for conservation technology assistance; and $300 million to measure carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from conservation practices.
President Biden has proposed a 50 percent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. During his campaign for the White House, he said American agriculture could be the first in the world to achieve net-zero in emissions. Republican lawmakers are dubious about climate change and skeptical of Biden’s initiatives to reduce agricultural emissions.
To watch a video of the hearing or to reach the written testimony of witnesses, click here.