After years wrangling over how best to target conservation money toward small farms, Congress has struck on a novel solution for the moment: quit trying.
In two installments this year — including this week’s bill to end the government shutdown — lawmakers have lifted restrictions that kept bigger, higher-income farms out of two key conservation programs for more than 20 years.
The legislation lawmakers passed Wednesday to end the shutdown — which includes the final fiscal 2026 Agriculture-FDA bill plus a continuing resolution for numerous other agencies — eliminates payment caps to farms participating in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), two of the Agriculture Department’s biggest conservation programs. Both have had the restriction since their inception.
Together with last summer’s spending bill that erased maximum income eligibility to participate in the programs, this week’s action made clear that Congress is finished — at least for now — with giving small farms an edge.
