S 629 · Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025
Held at the desk.
- Introduced
- Feb 19, 2025
- Latest action
- Mar 24, 2026
- Sponsor
- Sen. Deb Fischer [R-NE]
- Policy area
- Agriculture and Food
- Cosponsors
- 2
Summary
Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025 This bill revises the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) to expand eligibility for payments to agricultural producers and owners of forest land impacted by natural disasters. The bill also provides additional options to receive an advance on cost-sharing payments before carrying out emergency measures. The bill expands advance ECP payments to include the replacement, repair, or restoration of farmland or conservation structures requiring an immediate response. Producers may receive an advance on cost-sharing payments for 75% of the cost of the replacement and 50% of the cost of the repair or restoration. Current law limits advance payments to 25% of the cost of the repair or replacement of fencing. Under EFRP, the bill allows owners of nonindustrial private forest land impacted by a natural disaster to receive an advance on cost-sharing payments for up to 75% of the cost of the emergency measures. Currently, advance payments are not available under the program. ECP and EFRP recipients must use the funds within 180 days after the funds are disbursed. This provides additional time to ECP recipients who currently must use the funds within 60 days. The bill also expands eligibility for payments under the programs to include emergency measures to address damages caused by (1) a wildfire that is not caused naturally, if the damage is caused by the spread of the wildfire due to natural causes; and (2) a wildfire that is caused by the federal government.
Recent actions
- Mar 24, 2026 Held at the desk.
- Mar 24, 2026 Received in the House.
- Mar 24, 2026 Message on Senate action sent to the House.
- Mar 24, 2026 Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- Mar 24, 2026 Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- Mar 24, 2026 Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry discharged by Unanimous Consent.
- Mar 24, 2026 Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry discharged by Unanimous Consent.
- Feb 19, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Votes
No recorded votes are available for this bill.