Pacific Flyway Habitat Enhancement Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1420 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1420

    To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to allow for additional
   agricultural lands to be enrolled under the conservation reserve
              enhancement program, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 18, 2025

Mr. LaMalfa (for himself, Mr. Thompson of California, Mr. Valadao, Mr.
  Panetta, Mr. Costa, and Ms. Matsui) introduced the following bill;
           which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

    To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to allow for additional
   agricultural lands to be enrolled under the conservation reserve
              enhancement program, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Pacific Flyway Habitat Enhancement
Act''.

SEC. 2. CONSERVATION RESERVE ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM.

    Section 1231A of the Food Security Act of 1985 is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (f) as subsection (g); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following:
    ``(f) Seasonally Flooded Working Lands Habitat Conservation
Agreements.--
            ``(1) In general.--In the case of an agreement entered into
        under subsection (b)(1) that addresses diminished quantity and
        quality of wetland wildlife habitats, the Secretary, in
        consultation with the applicable State technical committee
        established under section 1261(a), may--
                    ``(A) enroll other agricultural land that is not
                eligible land on which the resource concerns identified
                in the agreement can be addressed if the enrollment of
                such other agricultural land is critical to the
                accomplishment of the purposes of the agreement;
                    ``(B) if the agreement involves the maintenance of
                habitat for one or more wetland-dependent species on
                working cropland, permit seasonally flooded
                agricultural uses on such working cropland with the
                adoption of at least one best management practice; and
                    ``(C) calculate annual rental payments in a manner
                that--
                            ``(i) is comparable with annual costs to
                        maintain other seasonally-flooded wetland
                        wildlife habitats in the region; and
                            ``(ii) ensures regional consistency in
                        those rental payment rates.
            ``(2) Matching requirement waiver.--In the case of an
        agreement described in paragraph (1), the Secretary may waive
        the matching requirement described in subsection (c)(1).''.
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