Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation

Existing Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations specify the conditions that may make a producer ineligible for certain USDA benefits, such as disaster assistance payments from the Farm Service Agency (FSA), in certain cases in which agricultural commodities are planted on highly erodible land or a converted wetland, or the production of agricultural commodities on acreage is made possible by the conversion of a wetland. Those regulations also specify the authorized exemptions, which include an exemption based on a "good faith" determination. The "good faith" provisions in the USDA regulations allow violators of highly erodible land conservation (HELC) or wetland conservation (WC) provisions to retain eligibility for USDA program benefits if certain conditions are met. This rule revises the "good faith" provisions in two ways, first, by requiring higher level concurrence within USDA with the good faith determination and second, by reducing the amount of the benefit to be received in an amount commensurate with the seriousness of a HELC violation. These changes to the regulations are made to implement provisions specified in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill).