Agricultural News
NACD Responds to President Biden's FY22 Budget Proposal
Fri, 09 Apr 2021 12:12:33 CDT
Today, the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) released the following statement regarding President Joe Biden's topline discretionary budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2022:
"NACD is encouraged by the proposals to strengthen funding for conservation," NACD President Michael Crowder said. "President Biden's budget includes significant investments within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Forest Service that will bolster voluntary conservation across the country."
President Biden's topline FY 2022 discretionary funding request (known as the "skinny budget") provides increased funding "for USDA's research, education, and outreach programs." This request also includes increased funding at the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior for reducing hazardous fuel loads on federal lands, one of the greatest contributors to increased wildfire activity across the country.
"NACD is hopeful that as the full budget is released in May, increased funding will go toward important programs like Conservation Operations and Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA), which help NRCS increase capacity at the local level," Crowder said. "Local NRCS staff, alongside conservation district employees, work directly with landowners to create conservation plans and implement conservation practices to address our nation's diverse natural resource concerns in a changing climate."
In March, NACD joined several organizations writing to President Biden to request robust increases in the CTA account.
"With increased attention to the unique role agriculture and forestry can play in addressing climate change, new conservation practices that could come from this increased investment will help communities increase resiliency to weather volatility while reducing our carbon footprint," Crowder said. "Increases to these discretionary programs are vital to accomplishing the Administration's goals of sustainable agriculture and forestry that can be a part of the solution to addressing climate change."
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