Farmers can get aid money before finishing repairs.
H.R. 1011 — Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025 · Filed by Julia Letlow (R-LA) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 5, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill lets farmers and forest owners get partial payment before work is done. They can get up to 75% of the money upfront for most repairs. They can get 50% for certain fixes. The bill also says wildfires started by the state count for aid. This is true if the harm spreads by nature. Any money not spent must be returned within 180 days.
Who it affects
Farmers and forest owners need to fix land, fences, or forests after fires. They get help faster now. They no longer have to wait until all repairs are finished to get paid.
One thing to notice
The Secretary of Agriculture decides how much money each farmer gets. The Secretary also sets when unused funds must be returned. This power could work in different ways based on who leads the agency.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Feb 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 5, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture”
- Apr 14, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 395 - 10…”
- Apr 14, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Thompson (PA) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Secretary of Agriculture — The head of the farm and food part of state.
- partial payment — Part of the total money, not all of it.
- upfront — Money given at the start, before work is done.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,575 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-21.
“Farmers can get aid money before finishing repairs.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1011/simple Report an error