U.S. Congressman Trent Kelly has introduced House Resolution (H.R.) 3580 in preparation for the 2023 Farm Bill debate.  H.R. 3580, entitled the “Restore CSP Act”, is legislation reauthorizing the USDA-National Resource Conservation Services’ Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) back to 2014 Farm Bill funding levels by taking conservation dollars authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act and repurposing them to the 2023 Farm Bill baseline for CSP.

In the 2018 Farm Bill, CSP funding was drastically reduced from $9 billion over 5 years down to $3.9 billion over 5 years.   Because of this two thirds reduction in funding and other program changes, farmers and ranchers have lost access to a very popular conservation initiative.

The “Restore CSP Act” simply reauthorizes CSP back to 2014 Farm Bill levels by taking conservation dollars authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act and repurposing them for the 2023 Farm Bill baseline.   Specifically, the bill allocates $1.8 billion to the CSP program for fiscal years 2024 to 2031 by transferring $5 billion unobligated funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

“Mississippi has led the nation in enrollment in the Conservation Stewardship Program over the last several years.  It’s a great program that incentivizes continued improvement in stewardship practices,” said Mississippi Farm Bureau president, Mike McCormick. “It has worked well in Mississippi for both row crop and livestock producers. Unfortunately, the 2018 Farm Bill drastically reduced funding for this important working lands program.  We commend Congressman Kelly in making this issue a priority for the next farm bill debate.”

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a voluntary conservation program, administered by the USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service incentivizing conservation in a comprehensive (whole-farm) manner.  CSP provides technical assistance and financial incentives for all resource concerns related to cropland, grazing lands, and timberland.

Any private landowner has the potential to benefit from CSP.  CSP has been highly utilized and successful in over the last eight years in many areas of the country. CSP rewards our best conservationist and provides incentives to raise the level of stewardship for every participant.