Restoring America’s Floodplains Act

This bill would change the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 to let the Secretary of Agriculture restore, monitor, maintain, and improve plant cover and water flow on land under floodplain easements bought through the Emergency Watershed Program. The Secretary could sign contracts with landowners and agreements with states, nonprofit groups, and Indian Tribes to do this work. The Secretary could also allow landowners to use easement land for activities such as hunting, fishing, managed timber harvest, water management, or occasional haying or grazing, if those uses are consistent with long-term protection of the floodplain. The bill would also let the Secretary carry out watershed restoration beyond what is needed to fix the immediate damage, if this serves the watershed's long-term health and protection from repeated damage.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Mark B. Messmer Republican sponsor
• 1 cosponsors