SOIL Act

Bill Summary: Saving Our Interconnected Lives (SOIL) Act

Bill Number: HR 4636 | Session: 119 | Jurisdiction: United States

Overview

The Saving Our Interconnected Lives (SOIL) Act is designed to incentivize agricultural practices that provide dual benefits to both soil health and wildlife habitats. The bill amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to increase financial support and prioritize projects that address these two resource concerns simultaneously, recognizing the symbiotic relationship between healthy soil and thriving wildlife populations.

Key Provisions

1. Enhancements to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

The bill significantly increases the financial incentive for producers who implement "co-benefit" practices.
* Increased Payment Rates: The Secretary of Agriculture is directed to provide payments covering 90% of the costs associated with planning, design, materials, equipment, installation, labor, management, maintenance, or training for practices that benefit both soil and wildlife habitat.
* Qualified Practices: The bill lists 26 specific qualifying practices, including but not limited to:
* Vegetation & Planting: Cover crops, alley cropping, windbreaks, hedgerows, and crop rotation.
* Water & Riparian Management: Restoring wetlands, establishing filter strips, and creating riparian forest buffers.
* Land Management: No-till or reduced-till residue management, forage harvest management, and the restoration of rare or declining natural communities.
* Priority Ranking: The bill amends the evaluation and prioritization process to explicitly favor applications developed to address both soil and wildlife habitat concerns.

2. Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) Improvements

The SOIL Act integrates "co-benefit" activities into the ranking and payment structure of the Conservation Stewardship Program:
* Evaluation Criteria: When ranking stewardship contract offers, the government must now consider the degree to which a project addresses both soil and wildlife habitat resource concerns.
* Definition of "Co-Benefit Activity": The bill defines a co-benefit activity as a conservation action that:
1. Addresses both soil and wildlife habitat concerns.
2. Improves wildlife habitat.
3. Increases carbon sequestration in the soil and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
* Supplemental Payments: The bill expands the eligibility for supplemental payments to include these defined co-benefit activities, alongside existing resource-conserving crop rotations and advanced grazing management.

Who is Affected?

• Agricultural Producers: Farmers and ranchers will have access to higher cost-share percentages (up to 90%) and supplemental payments if they adopt integrated conservation practices.
• USDA & Secretary of Agriculture: The Department of Agriculture will be responsible for identifying qualifying projects and adjusting the ranking and payment systems for EQIP and CSP.
• The Environment: By incentivizing carbon sequestration and habitat restoration, the bill aims to improve biodiversity and mitigate climate change.

Procedural Status

• Introduced: July 23, 2025
• Current Status: Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.