Farmers gain flexibility to restore watersheds beyond pre-disaster baseline
H.R. 5280 — Protecting Farmers from Natural Disasters Act of 2025 · Filed by Zachary (Zach) Nunn (R-IA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 to allow the Secretary of Agriculture to approve watershed restoration projects that go beyond pre-disaster conditions when doing so serves long-term watershed health. Currently, restoration is capped at returning land to its pre-disaster state; this bill permits more ambitious restoration if justified by watershed protection goals.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a narrow grant of discretionary authority to the Secretary of Agriculture to approve restoration projects that exceed pre-disaster baselines when watershed health justifies it. This is a straightforward environmental/agricultural policy amendment, not a financial carve-out or commemorative provision.
What the text implies
- Discretionary authority granted to the Secretary may vary in application across regions and administrations depending on how 'best interest of long-term health' is interpreted and prioritized relative to other agricultural or budget constraints.
- The bill does not specify funding mechanisms or appropriations, so the practical scope of restoration projects may depend on separate budget allocations and agency capacity.
- Expansion of restoration authority could incentivize more ambitious watershed projects, potentially increasing costs to the federal government if cost-sharing or subsidy mechanisms exist in the underlying Agricultural Credit Act.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands the Secretary's authority to approve more comprehensive watershed restoration when it serves long-term environmental and hydrological health. This benefits farmers (more restoration options), rural communities (improved watershed resilience), and the general public (better water security and ecosystem function). No identifiable cost to citizens.
Who stands to gain
- agricultural producers (expanded restoration options)
- watershed restoration contractors and consultants
Named in the bill
Secretary of Agriculture, Agricultural Credit Act of 1978, Section 403
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Sep 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 10, 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.
Zachary (Zach) Nunn, the sponsor, reported $1,895,327 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 (489 characters) on Sep 7, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,398 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 2026-10-23.
“Farmers gain flexibility to restore watersheds beyond pre-disaster baseline” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr5280 Report an error
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