To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to repeal certain provisions relating to the acceptance and use of contributions for public-private partnerships, and for other purposes.
Summary
What This Bill Does
H.R. 773 substantially simplifies section 1241(f) of the Food Security Act. It removes "for public-private partnerships" from the subsection heading and replaces the current mandatory account structure with authority for the Agriculture Secretary to establish a separate subaccount for each conservation program administered under subtitle D. Those subaccounts may accept nonfederal contributions supporting the program's purposes, and contributed funds remain deposited for program use.
The bill then strikes paragraphs 3 through 10 of current law. That repeal removes the Secretary's listed acceptance factors and sole-discretion language; authority to provide up to a 75-percent federal match; protection against substantially reducing a state's historical distribution; and the ban on using Inflation Reduction Act funds as a match. It also removes contributor rights to designate a program, geography, resource concern, environmental-service ownership terms, or promotional role.
The repeal further removes required producer notice and statutory protection for producer-accrued environmental-service benefits, authority to adjust regulatory requirements for simplified or locally tailored projects, annual reports to the agriculture committees, the broader covered-program definition, and the express duration rule. The replacement authority is narrower in program scope but less prescriptive. It does not appropriate funds, require USDA to accept a contribution, authorize a federal match, or independently alter the requirements of the underlying conservation program.
Who Benefits and How
USDA administrators gain a simpler optional subaccount structure and lose detailed reporting, matching, and project-adjustment duties. Federal conservation accounts avoid discretionary matching obligations. Subtitle D conservation programs retain a direct channel for nonfederal support, and contributors can still fund a program's purposes through an accepted contribution.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Private contributors lose statutory designation, matching, environmental-service, and promotion rights. Producers lose required notice and express protection against federal interference with accrued environmental-service benefits. States lose the historical-distribution safeguard attached to matching funds. Programs outside subtitle D lose their express covered-program status. Congressional agriculture committees lose annual disclosures, while locally tailored projects lose the special regulatory-adjustment pathway.
Key Provisions
- Replaces mandatory partnership accounts with optional program subaccounts.
- Limits contribution subaccounts to conservation programs under subtitle D.
- Preserves deposit of accepted nonfederal contributions for program purposes.
- Repeals authority for federal matching funds.
- Repeals contributor designation and environmental-service terms.
- Repeals producer notice and benefit-retention protections.
- Repeals regulatory-adjustment authority for contributed-fund projects.
- Repeals annual reports to congressional agriculture committees.
- Removes the broader covered-program definition and express duration rule.
- Provides no new appropriation or mandatory contribution acceptance.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Replaces the Food Security Act's detailed public-private conservation contribution framework with optional program-specific subaccounts for subtitle D conservation programs and repeals the federal-match, contributor-control, producer-protection, adjustment, reporting, definition, and duration provisions.
Key Policy Areas
Agricultural Conservation, Nonfederal Contributions, USDA Conservation Programs, Public-Private Partnerships, Conservation Program Oversight
Primary Purpose
Replaces the Food Security Act's detailed public-private conservation contribution framework with optional program-specific subaccounts for subtitle D conservation programs and repeals the federal-match, contributor-control, producer-protection, adjustment, reporting, definition, and duration provisions.
Policy Domains
Section 1 replacement of conservation partnership contribution rules
Identified Gains
- USDA administrators using simplified subaccounts
- Federal conservation accounts avoiding matching funds
- Subtitle D conservation programs receiving contributions
- Nonfederal contributors supporting general program purposes
- USDA reporting staff losing annual report duties
- Program administrators avoiding donor-specific terms
Identified Costs
- Private contributors losing designation rights
- Conservation projects losing federal matches
- Producers losing mandatory contribution notices
- Producers losing environmental-service protections
- States losing historical-distribution safeguards
- Conservation programs outside subtitle D
- Congressional agriculture committees losing reports
- Locally tailored projects losing adjustment authority
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology.
Ms. Hageman introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Congressional agriculture committees, Federal conservation accounts, USDA annual-report staff
Positive-direction: Federal conservation accounts, USDA annual-report staff, USDA conservation-account administrators, USDA donor-term administrators
Negative-direction: Congressional agriculture committees
Private contributors seeking designation rights, Producers awaiting contribution notices, Producers retaining environmental-service benefits
Positive-direction: Subtitle D conservation programs
Negative-direction: Private contributors seeking designation rights, Producers awaiting contribution notices, Producers retaining environmental-service benefits
Conservation programs outside subtitle D, Conservation projects seeking federal matches, Environmental-service market participants
States protected by historical distributions
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "program"
- → USDA conservation program administered under subtitle D
- "overseer"
- → Congressional agriculture committee receiving annual reports
- "producer"
- → Producer participating in a contributed-fund activity
- "contributor"
- → Entity contributing nonfederal conservation funds
- "administrator"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
Note: {'scope_ids': ['conservation_contribution_subaccounts'], 'description': 'The bill keeps an optional contribution channel for subtitle D programs but repeals both benefits and safeguards in the current partnership framework; it does not itself appropriate matching funds or waive the requirements of an underlying conservation program.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The current authority to match contributed private funds at a level up to 75 percent, which the bill removes.
Current contributor, producer, program-consistency, reporting, covered-program, and duration provisions struck as paragraphs 3 through 10.
An optional account established for a subtitle D conservation program to receive nonfederal funds supporting that program's purposes.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology