[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4912 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4912

  To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to clarify land eligible for 
            enrollment in the conservation reserve program.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 24, 2026

Mr. Welch (for himself and Mr. Sanders) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, 
                        Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to clarify land eligible for 
            enrollment in the conservation reserve program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Building Up Farmland Frontiers for 
Ecological Resilience Act'' or the ``BUFFER Act''.

SEC. 2. ELIGIBLE LAND UNDER THE CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM.

    Section 1231(b) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 
3831(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (6)(B)(ii), by striking ``or'' at the end;
            (2) in paragraph (7)--
                    (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by 
                striking ``as determined by the Secretary,''; and
                    (B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the period at 
                the end and inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(8) land that is otherwise eligible for enrollment and 
        for which a Tribal, State, or other local law, ordinance, or 
        other regulation requires any resource-conserving or 
        environmental protection measure or practice, unless the 
        requirement to implement such a measure or practice has been 
        imposed by an administrative order or a court order, in which 
        case that land shall not be eligible for enrollment.''.
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