American Stewards of Liberty | Members of Congress Want Clarity on SUSTAINS Act

In a letter dated October 21, 2024, five members of Congress are delving into the purpose and implementation of the USDA’s Sustainability Targets in Agriculture to Incentivize Natural Solutions (SUSTAINS) Act and asking for clarification.

The letter, signed by Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (R-WY), and Senators Michael Lee (R-UT), John Barrasso, M.D. (R-WY), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), stated they believe the implementation of the SUSTAINS Act is an attempt to further the goal of the Biden-Harris Administration’s 30×30 agenda.  This wasn’t the stated purpose of the Act when it was passed by Congress two years ago.

The members point out that the Act allows outside donors to “selectively fund environmental causes of their choice and then prescribe the terms of their share of the “environmental service benefits” derived from [private property] as a veiled attempt to impede the productive use of the land, all in the name of protecting and increasing the politically subjective value of the benefits derived from the land.”

This, along with the “Natural Capital Accounting” scheme being implemented by the Administration “are dangerous policies which threaten fundamental American rights like private property.”

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) announced conservation funding opportunities under the fiscal year (FY) 2025 funding while at the same time seeking public input through a “Request for Information” (RFI) on how to best implement the SUSTAINS Act.

This is where the members of Congress want clarity because the Act allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to accept and pair private dollars with mandatory annual appropriations to further the scope of its existing conservation programs.  They are concerned that NRCS is concurrently running FY25 funding applications while also going through a regulatory process which impacts these funding mechanisms.  They see a real conflict of interest allowing private entities to leverage their “donations” with federal dollars.

There is also the concern that these private dollars could be applied to already enrolled lands, precluding landowners from deciding whether or not they want private entities owning environmental services on their land.

These programs include the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), and Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).

The concern is how actively their constituents (landowners) are being solicited to apply for these programs, as well as other conservation programs, with no clarity on whether and how the SUSTAINS Act will apply to them.

Because the Sustains Act was passed in an appropriations bill, it could be rescinded through the budget reconciliation process Congress is expected to take up at the start of the new term.