Bill changes which farms get federal money for land care.
S. 4912 — BUFFER Act · Filed by Peter Welch (D-VT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill changes rules for a federal program. This program pays farmers to protect land. Farms can get paid if local or tribal law tells them to protect nature. Farms cannot get paid if a court or government ordered them to protect nature.
Who it affects
Farmers and landowners are affected. The bill helps farmers who follow rules set by local or tribal law. It blocks farmers who are under court or government orders to fix nature damage.
One thing to notice
Farms under court or government orders cannot get federal money. This may make it harder for the government to push farms to fix nature damage.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Independents.
- Jun 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- court or government ordered — A court or government command to follow nature protection rules.
- local or tribal law — Rules made by a city, county, or Native American tribe.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (940 characters) on Sep 28, 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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