Bill > HR9902

This bill, the Pacific Flyway Habitat Enhancement Act, amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to allow for additional agricultural lands to be enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). The key provisions include: (1) allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to enroll other agricultural land that is not eligible land if it is critical to accomplishing the purposes of the CREP agreement; (2) permitting seasonally flooded agricultural uses on working cropland with the adoption of at least one best management practice; and (3) allowing the Secretary to calculate annual rental payments in a manner that is comparable to the costs of maintaining other seasonally-flooded wetland wildlife habitats in the region and ensures regional consistency in rental payment rates. Additionally, the bill allows the Secretary to waive the matching requirement for CREP agreements that address diminished quantity and quality of wetland wildlife habitats.