Lee, Booker Reign in Runaway Agriculture Waste to Ensure Small Farmers Get Fair Share

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced legislation today with U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) to reign in government spending within the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) to reduce waste on ineffective projects and prevent big agriculture producers from monopolizing funding pools to ensure that small farmers have access to their fair share.

"Big Ag is hogging taxpayer dollars for their bloated, ineffective projects," said Senator Mike Lee. "The EQIP program is meant to benefit small farmers too, but when bigger players monopolize grant pools, fewer farms get their fair share and taxpayers end up funding pointless projects. The EQIP Improvement Act will lower the payment cap for single projects to reduce runaway spending on money pits, give states flexibility to prioritize their critical farming initiatives, and slash spending on ineffective waste. Both farmers and taxpayers will be better off with these changes in place."

"To make the EQIP Program more effective, this bill would re-focus support towards farmers that need it most by targeting funding to more producers and prioritizing conservation practices with significantly greater environmental benefits," said Senator Cory Booker. "With this bill, we will see more federal funding go toward providing vital financial support to our small family farmers and ranchers."

Background

The EQIP Improvement Act will reduce the overall payment cap on EQIP contracts, reduce federal cost-sharing for practices that provide little or no environmental benefits, and eliminate a requirement that 50% of EQIP funding flow to livestock operators.

To make the Environmental Quality Incentive Program more effective, this bill would re-focus support towards farmers and ranchers who need it the most by targeting funding to more producers and prioritizing conservation practices with significantly greater environmental and water quality benefits. This bill will eliminate wasteful spending and give states more control over conservation efforts.

Currently, over $1.2 billion of EQIP funds are spent on infrastructure practices that often support the largest operations and produce relatively little environmental benefit. Adjusting the cost-share for those practices would have allowed USDA to reinvest $583 million into other practices between 2018 and 2024, or $97 million per year.

USDA currently turns away over half of the farmers seeking conservation assistance. The savings from this bill will ensure that more farmers and ranchers have access to the most beneficial practices covered by EQIP. Analysis of EQIP contracts shows that between 2018 and 2021, just 23% of all EQIP funding went towards conservation practices with the most significant environmental benefits.

• Support More Farmers and Ranchers - The EQIP Improvement Act will reduce the overall five-year EQIP payment cap from $450,000 to $150,000 - which will free up EQIP funds to serve more farmers. The bill would also end an arbitrary requirement that 50 percent of EQIP funds - over $1.8 billion between 2017 and 2020 - flow to livestock operators. From 2017 through 2022 more than 222,000 contracts were turned away from EQIP due to a lack of funding. This has created an unfunded backlog for EQIP of more than $7.4 billion.

• Prioritize Most Effective Conservation Practices - According to USDA data, several EQIP conservation practices produce significantly more environmental benefits, including drinking water protection. These practices include cover crops, no-till, crop rotations, nutrient management, and streamside buffers. The EQIP Improvement Act would allow states to have greater flexibility in funding these practices by reducing payments to practices that have little benefit to the environment.

• Reduce Spending on Least Effective Conservation Practices - According to USDA data, several costly and structural EQIP practices provide very little benefit to taxpayers or the environment. Between 2018 and 2024, taxpayers provided more than $1.2 billion to support these practices, which include cost-sharing for roads, fish ponds, stock ponds, dams, animal waste pits, pipelines, and land clearing. The bill would reduce maximum cost-sharing from 75 percent to 40 percent for these practices.

Read full text of the bill here.

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