[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1219]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONSERVATION PROGRAMS

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, earlier this month the 
United States Department of Agriculture announced $370 million for 115 
conservation projects in 50 States. These dollars are a result of the 
Regional Conservation Partnership Program which was recently created in 
the 2014 farm bill by the consolidation of numerous regional 
conservation programs previously authorized under the 2008 law.
  This RCPP funding will also leverage an additional $400 million 
through non-Federal matching funds. Roughly 40 percent of these total 
dollars are going towards national or multistate projects, and about 35 
percent towards ``critical conservation areas,'' which include the 
Great Lakes region, the Chesapeake Bay watershed, as well as other high 
priority agricultural regions.
  As chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and 
Forestry, the committee will be closely watching how USDA administers 
this critical program through oversight of the conservation title in 
the coming year.
  I strongly support commonsense, voluntary agriculture conservation. I 
look forward to working with USDA and the various stakeholders on how 
to make these programs as effective and results driven as possible.

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