Federal flood protection for farms gets cheaper, broader—and riskier for taxpayers
H.R. 1858 — Flooding Prevention, Assessment, and Restoration Act · Filed by Donald Davis (D-NC) · 8 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 5, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill expands the federal emergency watershed program to allow the Department of Agriculture to undertake flood-prevention measures that go beyond fixing immediate damage—including long-term protective improvements—if they are cost-effective and protect against repeated flooding. It also requires a national study of agricultural flood vulnerability within two years and increases federal cost-sharing for rehabilitating aging flood-control structures from 65% to 90%.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to broaden federal authority and funding for watershed restoration and increase cost-sharing for structural repairs. It is a straightforward expansion of existing agricultural disaster-mitigation programs, not a deregulation, tax carve-out, or commemorative measure.
What the text implies
- The 90% federal cost-share for structural rehabilitation may create moral hazard, reducing incentives for local cost-control and potentially shifting long-term maintenance burden to federal taxpayers.
- The vulnerability study may identify agricultural regions with chronic flood risk, potentially informing future crop insurance or subsidy policy in ways not visible in this bill.
- Expanded authority to undertake 'long-term protection' measures gives the Secretary discretion to fund projects beyond emergency response, which could lead to inconsistent application across regions.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Agricultural producers and rural communities gain expanded access to federal flood-prevention funding with reduced local cost-share burden, and the mandatory vulnerability study creates a factual foundation for future policy. The bill does not restrict any citizen rights or impose new costs on the public.
Who stands to gain
- agricultural producers and farm operators
- rural water districts and watershed authorities
- construction and engineering firms contracted for restoration work
Named in the bill
Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Credit Act of 1978, Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, House Committee on Agriculture, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Where it stands
8 cosponsors: 5 Republicans, 3 Democrats.
- Mar 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 5, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $150,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 10 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Donald Davis, the sponsor, reported $1,617,446 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Flood Coalition Action, Inc. — $150,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 14, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,334 characters) on Aug 29, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 14, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal flood protection for farms gets cheaper, broader—and riskier for taxpayers” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1858 Report an error
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