The federal role for mitigating weather risk is primarily through federal crop insurance and a suite of agricultural disaster assistance programs to address a producer's crop or livestock production loss. These programs offer financial and technical assistance to producers to repair, restore, and mitigate damage on private land. Agricultural land assistance programs include the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), and the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. In addition to these programs, USDA also has flexibility in administering other programs that allow for support and repair of damaged cropland in the event of an emergency. This report describes these emergency agricultural land assistance programs. Emergency Conservation Program

			Purpose, Activities, and Authority

The Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) assists landowners in restoring land used in agricultural production when damaged by a natural disaster. Participants are limited to $200,000 per natural disaster. Funding and Allocation

Funding for ECP varies widely from year to year. Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP)

			Purpose, Activities, and Authority

The Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) provides cost-share assistance to private forestland owners to repair and rehabilitate damage caused by natural disasters on nonindustrial private forest land. The program is administered by FSA. Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program

			Purpose, Activities, and Authority

The Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program assists sponsors, landowners, and operators in implementing emergency recovery measures for runoff retardation and erosion prevention to relieve imminent hazards to life and property created by natural disasters. The EWP is administered by both USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The easements are meant to safeguard lives and property from future floods, drought, and the consequences of erosion through the restoration and preservation of the land's natural values. USDA holds all EWP floodplain easements in perpetuity. The Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 farm bill, P.L. Conservation Programs

In addition to the authorized land assistance programs, USDA uses a number of existing conservation programs to assist with rehabilitating land following natural disasters. Since most agricultural land assistance programs do not receive the level of attention that triggers a standalone supplemental appropriation bill, annual appropriation bills are increasingly seen as a vehicle for funding these programs. The timing of annual appropriations bills may not coincide with natural disasters and the subsequent requests for assistance. However, despite this flexibility, the inconsistent funding has left some agricultural land assistance programs without funding during times of high request volume. The variability of funding for agricultural land rehabilitation has led some to suggest that these programs have been left behind in favor of providing assistance for crop and livestock production loss rather than for land rehabilitation and natural resources degradation. Stafford Act Limitations

The Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25 ) limits emergency supplemental funding for disaster relief. Under Section 251(b)(2)(D) of the BCA, funding used for disaster relief must be used for activities carried out pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act, P.L. 93-288 ) for FY2012 through FY2021. This means funds appropriated through emergency supplemental acts for disaster relief through FY2021 may apply only to activities with a Stafford Act declaration. Since emergency agricultural land assistance programs do not normally require a federal disaster declaration from either the President or a state official, the Stafford Act requirement has become a limiting factor in the way agricultural land assistance programs work, potentially assisting fewer natural disaster events.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers several permanently authorized programs to help producers recover from natural disasters. Most of these programs offer financial assistance to producers for a loss in the production of crops or livestock. In addition to the production assistance programs, USDA also has several permanent disaster assistance programs that help producers repair damaged crop and forest land following natural disasters. These programs offer financial and technical assistance to producers to repair, restore, and mitigate damage on private land. These emergency agricultural land assistance programs include the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), and the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. In addition to these programs, USDA also has flexibility in administering other programs that allow for support and repair of damaged cropland in the event of an emergency.
Both ECP and EFRP are administered by USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA). ECP assists landowners in restoring agricultural production damaged by natural disasters. Participants are paid a percentage of the cost to restore the land to a productive state. ECP is available only on private land, and eligibility is determined locally. EFRP was created to assist private forestland owners to address damage caused by a natural disaster on nonindustrial private forest land.
The EWP program and the EWP floodplain easement program are administered by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The EWP program assists sponsors, landowners, and operators in implementing emergency recovery measures for runoff retardation and erosion prevention to relieve imminent hazards to life and property created by a natural disaster. In some cases this can include state and federal land. The EWP floodplain easement program is a mitigation program that pays for permanent easements on private land meant to safeguard lives and property from future floods, drought, and the consequences of erosion.
Funding for emergency agricultural land assistance varies greatly from year to year. Since most agricultural land assistance programs do not receive the level of attention that triggers a standalone supplemental bill, annual appropriation bills are increasingly seen as a vehicle for funding these programs. The timing of annual appropriation bills may not coincide with natural disasters, thus leaving some programs without funding during times of high request volume. This irregular funding method has led some to suggest the authorization of permanent mandatory funding similar to what was authorized in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 farm bill, P.L. 113-79) for agricultural disaster assistance programs that support crop and livestock production loss.
Restrictions placed on supplemental appropriations for disaster assistance have changed the way the agricultural land assistance programs allocate funding, potentially assisting fewer natural disasters. Language in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-25) limits to the use of emergency supplemental funding for disaster relief. Specifically, funding used for disaster relief must be used for activities carried out pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act, P.L. 93-288) for FY2012 through FY2021. This means funds appropriated through emergency supplemental acts for disaster relief for these 10 years may apply only to activities with a Stafford Act designation (generally requiring a federal disaster declaration from either the President or a state official). Since emergency agricultural land assistance programs do not normally require a federal disaster declaration, the Stafford Act requirement has become a limiting factor in the way agricultural land assistance programs work, potentially assisting fewer natural disaster events.