10. Department of Agriculture · Notable · Needs Congress
Devolve erodible land and wetlands conservation power to the states
Printed page 305 10. Department of Agriculture
“At a minimum, a new Administration should support legislation to divest more power to the states (and possibly local SWCDs) regarding erodible land and wetlands conservation.”
What has happened
- Not started
No legislation devolving erodible-land or wetland conservation authority to the states or to local Soil and Water Conservation Districts has advanced, and the administration has not asked for any. S. 1495, the NRCS Wetland Compliance and Appeals Reform Act, was read twice and referred to the Senate Agriculture Committee on 2025-04-10 and has taken no further action — under playbook §3b referral is `not-started`. The House-passed farm bill's conservation title (H.R. 7567, Secs. 2001-2807) contains no highly-erodible-land or wetland-conservation provision at all: a text search of the engrossed bill for "highly erodible", "3811", "3821" and "Soil and Water Conservation District" returns nothing. Cluster G (conservation compliance and easements) in `docs/research/ch-10.md`, round 3 ticket 09 batch 09c, records the queries.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- The executive limb is #787; the pending NRCS rulemaking (RIN 0578-AA73) is a court-remand delineation rule and does not devolve anything.
- Also checked and not this ask: H.R. 2316, the Wetlands Conservation and Access Improvement Act of 2025, which became P.L. 119-40 on 2025-11-25 — it concerns Federal Duck Stamp pricing and wildlife-refuge access, not Food Security Act conservation compliance.
- Action
- transfer
- Object
- erodible land and wetlands conservation authority
- ID
- 788