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Summary

Conservation is playing a prominent role in the development of a farm bill by the 110th Congress. The House and Senate Agriculture Committees are each assembling their versions of farm bill conservation titles, drawing on information gathered at numerous hearings, recommendations and proposals offered by many interested parties (including the Bush Administration), and legislative proposals introduced by other Members. The House Agriculture Committee has issued "discussion drafts" of all farm bill titles. These drafts have been acted on at the subcommittee level, with full committee consideration scheduled to start soon. The Senate Agriculture Committee staff continues to develop its version of the farm bill, and Chairman Harkin anticipates that the committee can begin consideration of its version soon as well. Although conservation is but one of many titles in the pending farm bill, it is becoming more central to farm policy. Conservation is viewed by some as a potential alternative to commodity programs as a way to deliver government support, and has been receiving a growing portion of agricultural spending. Conservation proponents have offered many suggestions for (1) addressing new topics through expanded conservation programs; (2) providing additional funding to current conservation programs; and (3) creating new programs. Others caution that overall funding could be limited in this farm bill, and with it, conservation funding. Many in this latter group would like to see limited funds spent on other farm bill topics or programs. In addition, some would like to limit the reach or the scope of the conservation effort, or question whether the conservation accomplishments reflect the scale of investment and effort. This report introduces some of the issues that are influencing the development of a conservation title. It then reviews the contents of the House Agriculture Committee's discussion draft and more briefly summarizes provisions in some of the other bills that have been introduced (H.R. 1551, S. 919, H.R. 1600, and H.R. 1766). The committee draft would provide more modest increases in funding for conservation programs than many of the alternative conservation bills are calling for, add some new freestanding conservation initiatives in areas such as working cooperatively and using market-based approaches, add new topics -- forest management and invasive species, for example -- to some existing programs, and reauthorize all expiring conservation programs. The other three bills discussed in this report include large conservation sections and would make more substantial changes to some conservation programs, while providing more funding to the conservation effort. This report is limited to the conservation title. However, conservation topics in recent farm bills have been increasingly addressed in other titles, and that trend appears likely to continue. This farm bill seems likely to contain conservation provisions in the energy, forestry, and research titles, and others as well; those provisions may be discussed in other CRS reports about the titles in which they are found. This report will be updated as the farm bill is developed.

Related Legislation:
• H.R.1551
• S.919
• H.R.1600
• H.R.1766

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