Booker, Lee Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Improve the EQIP Conservation Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and Mike Lee (R-UT) reintroduced the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) Improvement Act, a bipartisan bill that would reshape EQIP to be more equitable and effective.

Established in 1998, EQIP is a voluntary conservation initiative that offers farmers and ranchers federal cost-share grants to adopt environmentally beneficial practices on their land. Unfortunately, the USDA currently turns away over half of the farmers seeking conservation assistance due to high demand; in 2023, over 75,000 farmers were turned away from EQIP.

This legislation would strengthen EQIP by ensuring more farmers and ranchers can participate in the program, particularly small farmers; funding the most effective conservation practices; and giving states greater flexibility in implementing the program.

"To make the EQIP Program more effective, this bill would re-focus support towards farmers that need it most by targeting funding to more producers and prioritizing conservation practices with significantly greater environmental benefits," said Senator Booker. "With this bill, we will see more federal funding go toward providing vital financial support to our small family farmers and ranchers."

"Big Ag is hogging taxpayer dollars for their bloated, ineffective projects," said Senator Mike Lee. "The EQIP program is meant to benefit small farmers too, but when bigger players monopolize grant pools, fewer farms get their fair share and taxpayers end up funding pointless projects. The EQIP Improvement Act will lower the payment cap for single projects to reduce runaway spending on money pits, give states flexibility to prioritize their critical farming initiatives, and slash spending on ineffective waste. Both farmers and taxpayers will be better off with these changes in place."

"I am hopeful that the EQIP Improvement Act of 2025 will level the playing field, allowing more smaller farms to access much-needed financial and technical support for conservation and natural resource practices and protection," said Devin Cornia, Executive Director, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey NOFA NJ. "In New Jersey, many small farmers who are currently employing conservation practices struggle to participate in federal programs while large-scale industrial agriculture operations receive a large portion of the funding pool. This legislation will direct support to more local community-minded, small and medium sized regenerative family farms versus large-scale operations that routinely pose a threat to natural resources and fragile ecosystems".

"This bill is a long-overdue course correction that would stop the funneling of scarce conservation dollars into wasteful infrastructure for the biggest operations and instead prioritize smaller farmers who actually deliver real benefits," said Kelly Ryerson, Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder, American Regeneration.

"The EQIP Improvement Act is a long-overdue course correction," said Joe Maxwell, President of Farm Action Fund. "For years, EQIP dollars have been concentrated in a small number of large structural projects that deliver limited environmental benefit and contribute to further consolidation, while more than half of farmers seeking conservation help are turned away. Senators Booker and Lee and Representative Hayes deserve credit for refocusing EQIP on what works-supporting more farmers, prioritizing proven conservation practices that protect soil and water, and giving states greater flexibility. This bill reduces waste, expands access, and ensures public dollars deliver real environmental returns."

"The factory farm model in Iowa is heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars," said Ava Auen-Ryan, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. "This model of agriculture also generates millions of gallons of toxic liquid manure that is dumped on farm fields across the state and eventually runs off into our over 700 impaired waterways. The EQIP improvement act is a good first step towards supporting small to mid size producers whose conservations practices help clean up and protect water quality in Iowa for ourselves and for future generations."

"Washington can no longer justify subsidizing factory farms that pollute our nation's waterways and have driven hundreds of thousands of independent family farmers out of business across rural America in the past twenty years," said David Murphy, Founder of United We Eat. "This bill delivers urgent resources that America's farmers need to transition to better regenerative soil-health practices and can help restore millions of acres of degraded land, while also boosting farm profitability and revitalizing rural economies during a growing farm crisis."

"National Taxpayers Union endorses the EQIP Improvement Act of 2025," said Bryan Riley, Director of National Taxpayers Union Free Trade Initiative. "This bill from Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) would promote a more efficient and targeted use of taxpayer dollars."

"The EQIP Improvement Act will put federal conservation funds back where they belong - in farmers' pockets. For too long, money intended to support projects for sustainable farmers has lined the pockets of the biggest corporations," said Rebecca Wolf, Senior Food Policy Analyst, Food & Water Watch. "This bill would right the ship."

"By directing federal conservation funding toward farmers committed to environmentally responsible practices, this legislation takes an important step in protecting vulnerable communities across the nation from the harms of industrial animal operations," said Blakely Hildebrand, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. "Public dollars should never underwrite pollution that worsens our water and air quality. We applaud Senators Booker and Lee for this effort to enhance fair access to funding, support genuine conservation, and prioritize the health of communities.

"Thousands of farmers are being turned away by USDA when they offer to share the cost of cleaner air and water," said Geoff Horsfield, Legislative Director, Environmental Working Group. "At a time when we need to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, we should be reforming conservation programs to help more farmers participate in programs like EQIP."

A list of endorsing organizations can be found here.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.