Sec. 1901. Regional conservation partnership program
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Title XII of the Food Security Act of 1985 is amended by inserting after subtitle H (as added by section 1801) the following: The Secretary shall establish a regional conservation partnership program to implement eligible activities through— partnership agreements with eligible partners; and contracts with producers enrolled in a covered program. The purposes of the program are— to combine the purposes and coordinate the functions of the agricultural water enhancement program established under section 1240I, the Chesapeake Bay watershed program established under section 1240Q, the cooperative conservation partnership initiative established under section 1243, and the Great Lakes basin program for soil erosion and sediment control established under section 1240P, as such sections were in effect on September 30, 2013; to enhance priority resource concerns on agricultural and nonindustrial private forest lands, including ground and surface water associated with such lands; to encourage cooperation among partners and producers to— address priority resource concerns involving agricultural and nonindustrial private forest lands on a local, State, multi-state, or regional level; encourage producers to cooperate in achieving the goals of applicable Federal, State, and local natural resource and environmental laws, thereby avoiding the need for additional regulatory measures to be applied to owners and operators of agricultural and nonindustrial private forest land; encourage producers to cooperate in the installation and maintenance of conservation activities, practices, systems, and management measures that affect multiple agricultural or nonindustrial private forest operations for the purpose of achieving landscape-level improvement of priority resource concerns; promote the development and demonstration of innovative conservation activities, practices, systems, and management measures to deliver technical, financial, and educational assistance; and promote ground and surface water conservation and improve water quality through efforts on agricultural land, including— water quality or water conservation planning, including resource condition assessment and modeling; performance measurement and management to reduce nutrient loss; water quality or water conservation restoration or enhancement projects; in the case of nutrient-impacted watersheds, prioritization of nutrient loss reduction as a conservation goal; activities designed to mitigate the effects of damaging drought or precipitation; or related activities that the Secretary determines will help achieve water quality or water conservation benefits on agricultural land; to encourage producers to cooperate in the installation and maintenance of conservation activities, practices, systems, and management measures that provide climate change benefits, including increasing resilience to rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and related climate changes while reducing greenhouse gas emissions; to improve the capacity of regional, state or local partners to deliver assistance to producers that is effective in addressing priority resource concerns; and to implement the partnership in such a way that encourages producers to achieve assessed conservation outcomes and allows them to receive payments and technical assistance linked to levels of those outcomes.
In this subtitle: The term covered programs means all conservation programs under subtitle D. The term eligible activity means any of the following conservation activities when delivered through a covered program: Water quality restoration or enhancement projects, including nutrient management and sediment reduction. Water quantity conservation, restoration, or enhancement projects relating to surface water and groundwater resources, including— the conversion of irrigated cropland to the production of less water-intensive agricultural commodities or dryland farming; and irrigation system improvement and irrigation efficiency enhancement.
Drought mitigation. Flood prevention. Water retention. Habitat conservation, restoration, and enhancement. Erosion control. Other related activities that the Secretary determines will help achieve conservation benefits. The term eligible partner means any of the following: An agricultural or silvicultural producer association or other group of producers. A State or unit of local government. An Indian tribe. A farmer cooperative. An institution of higher education. A nongovernmental organization with an established history of working cooperatively with producers to effectively address priority resource concerns related to agricultural production and nonindustrial private forest land or with demonstrated technical capabilities that would substantially increase the success of the program.
The term partnership agreement means an agreement between the Secretary and an eligible partner. The term program means the regional conservation partnership program established by this subtitle. The Secretary may enter into a partnership agreement with an eligible partner to implement a project that will assist producers with installing and maintaining an eligible activity. A partnership agreement shall be for a period not to exceed 5 years, except that the Secretary may extend the agreement 1 time for up to 12 months when an extension is necessary to meet the objectives of the program.
Under a partnership agreement, the eligible partner shall— define the scope of a project, including— the eligible activities to be implemented; the potential agricultural or nonindustrial private forest operations affected; the local, State, multi-State, or other geographic area covered; and the planning, outreach, implementation, and assessment to be conducted; conduct outreach and education to producers for potential participation in the project; at the request of a producer, act on behalf of a producer participating in the project in applying for assistance under section 1271C; leverage financial or technical assistance provided by the Secretary with additional funds to help achieve the project objectives; if proposed by the partner and approved by the Secretary, provide technical assistance to producers participating in the project; conduct an assessment of the project’s effects; and at the conclusion of the project, report to the Secretary on its results and funds leveraged.
A partner shall provide a significant portion of the overall costs of the scope of the project, as determined by the Secretary. The Secretary shall conduct a competitive process to select applications for partnership agreements and may assess and rank applications with similar conservation purposes as a group. In carrying out the process described in paragraph (1), the Secretary shall make public the criteria used in evaluating applications. An application to the Secretary shall include a description of— the scope of the project, as described in subsection (c)(1)(A); the plan for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on progress made towards achieving the project’s objectives; the program resources requested for the project, including the covered programs to be used and estimated funding needed from the Secretary; the resources requested under section 1271C(c)(4); the partners collaborating to achieve project objectives, including their roles, responsibilities, capabilities, and financial contribution; and any other elements the Secretary considers necessary to adequately evaluate and competitively select applications for funding under the program.
The Secretary shall give a higher priority to applications that demonstrate the greatest potential to— have a high percentage of producers involved and of the agricultural or nonindustrial private forest land included in the area covered by the agreement; assist producers in meeting the goals and objectives of Federal environmental and natural resource laws and regulations; significantly leverage non-Federal financial and technical resources and coordinate with other local, State, regional, or national efforts; deliver high percentages of applied conservation to address water quality, water conservation, or other State, regional, or national priority resource concerns; provide innovation in conservation methods and delivery, including outcome-based performance measures and methods; identify producers participating in the project, on whose behalf the partner is applying; advance conservation and rural community development goals simultaneously; assist producers in States with significant water quantity concerns; or meet other factors that are important for achieving the purposes of the program, as determined by the Secretary.
The Secretary shall enter into contracts to provide financial and technical assistance to— producers participating in an eligible activity with an eligible partner; or producers participating in an eligible activity in a critical conservation area designated under section 1271F without an eligible partner. Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the Secretary shall ensure that the terms and conditions of a contract under this section are consistent with the applicable rules of the covered programs to be used as part of the project, as described in the application under section 1271B(d)(3)(C).
Except for statutory program requirements governing appeals, payment limitations, and conservation compliance, the Secretary may adjust the discretionary program rules of a covered program— to provide a simplified application and evaluation process; to better reflect unique local circumstances and purposes if the Secretary determines such adjustments are necessary to achieve the purposes of the proposed project; to better link technical and financial assistance to assessed conservation outcomes; and to increase the improvement in priority resource concerns achieved by the proposed project.
For the purposes of providing assistance for a critical conservation areas designated under section 1271F, the Secretary may enter into alternative funding arrangements with a multistate water resource agency or authority if— the Secretary determines that the goals and objectives of the program will be met by the alternative funding arrangements; the agency or authority certifies that the limitations established under this section on agreements with individual producers will not be exceeded; and all participating producers meet applicable payment eligibility provisions.
As a condition on receipt of funding under subparagraph (A), the multistate water resource agency or authority shall agree— to submit an annual independent audit to the Secretary that describes the use of funds under this paragraph; to provide any data necessary for the Secretary to issue a report on the use of funds under this paragraph; and not to use any funds for administration or contracting with another entity. The Secretary may enter into not more than 10 alternative funding arrangements under this paragraph.
In accordance with statutory requirements of the covered programs involved, the Secretary may make payments to a producer in an amount determined by the Secretary to be necessary to achieve the purposes of the program. The Secretary may provide payments for a period of 5 years— to producers participating in a project that addresses water quantity concerns and in an amount sufficient to encourage conversion from irrigated to dryland farming; and to producers participating in a project that addresses water quality concerns and in an amount sufficient to encourage adoption of conservation practices and systems that improve nutrient management.
To assist in the implementation of the program, the Secretary may waive the applicability of the limitation in section 1001D(b)(2) of this Act for participating producers if the Secretary determines that the waiver is necessary to fulfill the objectives of the program. The Secretary shall provide, directly or through cooperative and contribution agreements with partners, financial assistance to such partners to complete tasks essential to the success of the project which may include natural resource assessment and planning, outreach to producers, monitoring, technical assistance, and evaluation of project progress and other such essential tasks as determined by the Secretary.
The Secretary shall use $100,000,000 of the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2018 to carry out the program established under this subtitle. Funds made available under subsection
(a)shall remain available until expended. In addition to the funds made available under subsection (a), the Secretary shall reserve at least 8 percent of the funds and acres made available for a covered program for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2018 in order to ensure additional resources are available to provide technical and financial assistance to producers to carry out this program. The Secretary shall reserve at least 10 percent of the funding provided in subsection
(a)to provide payments to partners. Any funds or acres reserved under paragraph
(1)of this section for a fiscal year from a covered program that are not obligated under this program by April 1 of that fiscal year shall be returned for use under the covered program or redirected to support unfunded applications within the geographic areas of approved partnership agreements. Any funds reserved under paragraph
(2)of this section for a fiscal year that are not obligated under this program by April 1 of that fiscal year shall be reallocated to partners demonstrating the highest level of performance in achieving the objectives of the program. Of the funds and acres made available for the program under subsections
(a)and (c), the Secretary shall allocate— 40 percent of the funds and acres to projects based on a State competitive process administered by the State conservationist, with the advice of the State technical committee; and 60 percent of the funds and acres to projects based on a national competitive process to be established by the Secretary, of which 60 percent shall be reserved for the critical conservation areas designated under section 1271F. The Secretary shall make publicly available information on projects selected through the competitive process described in section 1271B(d)(1). Not later than December 31, 2013, and every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate a report on the status of projects funded under the program, including— the number and types of partners and producers participating in the partnership agreements selected; the number of producers receiving assistance; total funding committed to projects, including Federal and non-Federal resources; and a description of how funds are being administered under section 1271B, including— any oversight mechanisms that the Secretary has implemented; the process through which the Secretary is resolving appeals by program participants; and the means by which the Secretary is tracking adherence to any applicable provisions for payment eligibility. Partners shall provide to the Secretary— annual performance reports; at the end of each multi-year project, a performance report that describes— the progress that has been made towards attainment of conservation objectives and landscape-scale conservation outcomes; the methods that have been used to measure progress being made toward attainment of conservation objectives and landscape-scale conservation outcomes; the number of producers who participated; and the conservation practices adopted and the frequency of adoption. When administering the funding reserved for critical conservation areas under section 1271D(d)(2), the Secretary shall select applications for partnership agreements and producer contracts within critical conservation areas designated under this section. The Secretary shall designate up to 6 geographical areas as critical conservation areas based on the degree to which an area— includes multiple States with significant agricultural production; is covered by an existing regional, State, binational, or multistate agreement or plan that has established objectives, goals, and work plans and is adopted by a Federal, State, or regional authority; has water quality concerns, including concerns for reducing erosion, promoting sediment control, and addressing nutrient management activities affecting large bodies of water of regional, national, or international significance; has water quantity concerns, including— concerns for groundwater, surface water, aquifer, or other water sources; or a need to promote water retention and flood prevention; is subject to regulatory requirements that could reduce the economic scope of agricultural operations within the area; or is recognized as vital habitat for migrating wildlife. Critical conservation area designations under this section shall expire after 5 years, subject to redesignation, except that the Secretary may withdraw designation from an area if the Secretary finds the area no longer meets the conditions described in paragraph (1). Except as provided in paragraph (2), the Secretary shall administer any partnership agreement or producer contract under this section in a manner that is consistent with the terms of the program. The Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable, ensure that eligible activities carried out in critical conservation areas designated under this section complement and are consistent with other Federal and State programs and water quality and quantity strategies. .