The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) announced the award of $15 million in new technical assistance grants as continued funding to nearly 500 conservation districts in 49 states and territories.
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Category: Legislative Updates
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Total construction spending decreased by 0.4 percent in July as spending on new houses and apartments tumbled, overshadowing a pickup in private nonresidential and public construction, according to an analysis the Associated General Contractors of America released today of federal spending data.
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The Agriculture Department is significantly increasing its farm earning forecast for 2022, estimating net cash farm income will reach its highest level in a decade due to the booming prices for crops and animal products.
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The Inflation Reduction Act includes approximately $1 billion for conservation technical assistance, which allows NRCS and conservation districts across the country to get boots on the ground to support producers implement conservation. This legislation also provides $18 billion for voluntary conservation programs administered by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) between Fiscal Years 2023 and 2027.
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This story you have probably heard or read about but wanted to share it because it means BIG trouble for so much of the West and for farmers and ranchers.
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton tasked seven states that use water from the Colorado River with determining how to cut between 2 and 4 million acre-feet of water in June, warning them that the Bureau of Reclamation would step in and “act unilaterally” to protect the system if they didn't.
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The Trump administration’s proposed new definition of “waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act is either a radical policy shift that misinterprets Supreme Court precedent and will leave up to 70 percent of tributaries and half the nation’s wetlands unprotected, or it’s a constitutionally valid approach to regulating the nation’s waters that preserves the states’ lead role over water pollution control and land use planning.
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The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) provided comments to the Environmental Protection Agency in a letter regarding proposed changes to certain provisions of the Clean Water Act.
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The Senate's revived reconciliation deal would keep agricultural conservation, forestry and renewable fuels in the Democrats’ formula for fighting climate change.
The overall budget package, which is billed as an inflation fighter, booster of energy production and a down payment to fund climate-smart policies, could face a test as soon as Wednesday with a vote on a motion to proceed. If the motion is agreed to, a series of votes on amendments would follow Thursday.
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Major U.S. agricultural production groups are pulling together their requests for the next farm bill — the massive legislation that Congress rewrites every five years to set farm and food policy — with crop insurance and disaster assistance on the top of their lists.
A panel of executives from farm groups detailed some of their concerns and requests for the next farm bill Tuesday at the Minnesota FarmFest, an agribusiness fair organized by the American Farm Bureau.
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The farm bill includes both mandatory and discretionary spending. Congress can change discretionary spending in the annual spending bills.
But most farm bill programs are mandatory spending, including crop subsidies, farm bill conservation programs and some forms of crop insurance. For those programs, the farm bill will set the funding structure for the next five years.
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