PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jun 24, 2026
Building Up Farmland Frontiers for Ecological Resilience Act or the BUFFER Act
This bill provides that certain land (that is under state regulations) is eligible to participate under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Under CRP, the Department of Agriculture provides annual payments to agricultural producers to take highly erodible and environmentally sensitive land out of production and install resource-conserving practices.
Specifically, land otherwise eligible under the program remains eligible for enrollment even if a tribal, state, or other local law, ordinance, or other regulation requires any resource-conserving or environmental protection measure or practice. The bill includes an exception that makes the land ineligible under the program if the implementation requirement has been imposed by an administrative order or a court order.
Current regulations exclude from enrollment eligibility (with exceptions) land that is subject to tribal, state, or other local laws, ordinances, or other regulations that require any resource-conserving or environmental protection measures or practices.
People & committees
Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] · D–VT
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Aug 25, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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