Forest Conservation Easement Program Act of 2025

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 3476 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 3476 To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish the forest conservation easement program, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 17, 2025 Mr. Kelly of Mississippi (for himself, Ms. Goodlander, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Mr. Guest, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Tonko) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish the forest conservation easement program, and for other purposes. 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 ``Forest Conservation Easement Program Act of 2025''. SEC. 2. FOREST CONSERVATION EASEMENT PROGRAM. (a) In General.--Title XII of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3801 et seq.) is amended-- (1) by redesignating subtitle I (16 U.S.C. 3871 et seq.) as subtitle J; and (2) by inserting after subtitle H (16 U.S.C. 3865 et seq.) the following: ``Subtitle I--Forest Conservation Easement Program ``SEC. 1267. ESTABLISHMENT AND PURPOSES. ``(a) Establishment.--The Secretary shall establish a forest conservation easement program for the conservation and restoration of eligible land and natural resources through the acquisition of conservation easements or other interests in land. ``(b) Purposes.--The purposes of the program are-- ``(1) to protect the viability and sustainability of forest land and related ecological and human conservation values of eligible land by limiting the negative impacts of non-forest la