A push to help Western farmers manage a long-term drought nearly poured cold water on the farm bill in the House. Now, the fight moves to the Senate.
After fizzling in the House two weeks ago, the proposal from Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) and others to tweak a land set-aside program to encourage water conservation is far from snuffed out.
The idea is to give farmers who enroll in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) bigger payments for taking land out of production to save water, or to encourage them to grow certain crops that don’t need irrigation. The changes are important in the West, where a multidecade drought is intensifying the competition for water.
The proposal, H.R. 2758, the “CREP Improvement Act,” stumbled when House Republican leaders wouldn’t allow a vote on it as an amendment to the farm bill two weeks ago. It’s been brewing in Congress since lawmakers first proposed it in 2023.
