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B-331753 1 (2020-01-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaeapc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 B-331753 January 27, 2020 The Honorable Pat Roberts Chairman The Honorable Debbie Stabenow Ranking Member Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry United States Senate The Honorable Collin C. Peterson Chairman The Honorable K. Michael Conaway Ranking Member Committee on Agriculture House of Representatives Subject: Department of Agriculture, Commodity Credit Corporation: Agricultural Conservation Easement Program Pursuant to section 801 (a)(2)(A) of title 5, United States Code, this is our report on a major rule promulgated by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) entitled Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (RIN: 0578-AA66). We received the rule on January 10, 2020. It was published in the Federal Register as an interim rule on January 6, 2020. 85 Fed. Reg. 558. The effective date of the rule is December 30, 2019. The interim rule makes changes to the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) regulations to conform to the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill). USDA stated that ACEP is a voluntary program with two components-agricultural land easements (ACEP-ALE) and wetland reserve easements (ACEP-WRE)-to help farmers and ranchers preserve their agricultural land and restore, protect, and enhance wetlands on eligible lands. The rule makes changes to requirements on buy-protect-sell transactions, which are arrangements between the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and an eligible entity where the entity owns or will own the land prior to the acquisition of the agricultural land easement and the eligible entity sells fee title or transfers ownership to a farmer or rancher. Specifically, according to the agency, the final rule identifies that an ACEP-ALE cost-share payment will only be provided on a reimbursable basis in order to minimize the risk that the eligible entity will have to repay NRCS for the federal share. The final rule also revises the extent to which the eligible entity's cash contribution is a national ranking criterion and specifies the measures that will be used to maintain or increase agricultural viability, such as ACEP-ALE plans, may be a state ranking criterion. In addition, regarding the ACEP-WRE component, the final rule revises the definition of wetland restoration to include the requirement for wetland restoration to be conducted following published state-specific criteria and guidelines developed in consultation with state technical committee.

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