December 16, 2022 - Washington—Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (both D-Calif.) yesterday led a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to ensure that the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) supports conservation practices that mitigate the impacts of drought while combatting climate change. In their letter, the senators push the USDA to use their mandate from the Inflation Reduction Act to address drought-related issues, including enhancing groundwater recharge, reducing salinity, improving irrigation efficiencies, reducing groundwater pumping, and utilizing organic practices.

“As USDA finalizes criteria for priority projects and activities that address greenhouse gas emissions, reduce nitrogen losses, and improve soil carbon, we urge you to pay special attention to practices that also address drought,” said the lawmakers. “These [practices] will help meet climate goals while helping Western farmers currently facing the worst megadrought in 1,200 years.”

“Farmers and ranchers know better than most that our ability to feed the nation – and to support family farmers and farmworkers alike – depends on clean air, clean water, and land stewardship,” continued the lawmakers. “In order to truly support the farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers who feed our nation in adopting and expanding climate-smart activities and systems, we must ensure that the historic funding in the Inflation Reduction Act for emissions reductions also bolsters drought resilience.” 

The Inflation Reduction Act included $20 billion to incentivize climate smart agriculture through existing conservation programs, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which provide technical and financial assistance to address on-farm natural resource concerns like soil erosion, water conservation, and air quality. 

California and the Western United States remain under threat from extreme drought and record heat. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 70 percent of the Western states are classified as experiencing some level of drought, with nearly 30 percent of Western land experiencing extreme or exceptional drought. 

Feinstein and Padilla recently joined a bipartisan group of fourteen Western senators in sending a letter urging the USDA to ensure that its programs are funded and administered to more effectively address the dire drought conditions throughout the West. They secured a historic $4 billion in funding for drought resiliency in the Inflation Reduction Act to stabilize water supplies from the Salton Sea to the Colorado River. They also introduced the Water Reuse and Resiliency Act to boost funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Pilot Program for Alternative Water Source Projects grants program for groundwater recharge, stormwater capture and reuse, and water recycling projects. 

In addition to Senators Padilla and Feinstein, the letter is also signed by Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.). 

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Secretary Vilsack and Chief Cosby, 

We write to you in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) request for information on implementation of climate-smart funding in the Inflation Reduction Act (P.L. 117-169).  As you work to finalize details, we urge the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to specifically incentivize the adoption of conservation practices that, while combatting climate change, can simultaneously mitigate the impacts of drought. 

As you know, the Inflation Reduction Act invested $20 billion through key conservation programs to ensure that the agricultural sector plays a central role in combatting the climate crisis.  As USDA finalizes criteria for priority projects and activities that address greenhouse gas emissions, reduce nitrogen losses, and improve soil carbon, we urge you to pay special attention to practices that also address drought, including enhancing groundwater recharge, reducing salinity, improving irrigation efficiencies, reducing pumping, and utilizing organic practices. These and other practices will help meet climate goals while also helping Western farmers currently facing the worst megadrought in 1,200 years. 

Farmers and ranchers know better than most that our ability to feed the nation – and to support family farmers and farmworkers alike – depends on clean air, clean water, and land stewardship.  In order to truly support the farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers who feed our nation in adopting and expanding climate-smart activities and systems, we must ensure that the historic funding in the Inflation Reduction Act for emissions reductions also bolsters drought resilience.

We thank you for your consideration of this request, and we look forward to your response. 

Sincerely,

Source: Senator Dianne Feinstein