Soil CARE Act of 2026
Sponsored By: Senator Merkley, Jeff [D-OR]
Introduced
Summary
A comprehensive soil health training program would create a nationwide curriculum and regional workshops to help Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff, third-party providers, and farmers adopt regenerative soil management.
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- NRCS staff: Relevant field office and conservation planning staff would be encouraged to complete the online curriculum, receive continuing education, and provide soil health education materials to producers.
- Third-party providers: Providers would be scheduled and encouraged to finish the online coursework and to attend at least one in-person workshop delivered by the Service in their region.
- Producers and farms: Farmers would get a nationally available online curriculum and in-person workshops twice every two years in each NRCS region on soil testing, transitions to regenerative systems, diversified production, and available conservation programs.
- Tribes, new, small, and underserved producers: The curriculum must cover issues specific to Indian Tribes and traditional ecological knowledge and the special needs of new, small-scale, and underserved producers.
*Would authorize $10 million for fiscal years 2027 through 2032, increasing federal spending by that amount.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Soil health training for farmers
If enacted, the bill would require USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service to set up a national Soil Health Training Program within 1 year. The program would offer a national online curriculum and in-person regional workshops in each NRCS region at least twice every two years. The curriculum would be updated every 2 years and must cover ten specified soil health topics for NRCS staff, third-party providers, and producers. The Secretary would enter cooperative agreements with universities, conservation districts, nonprofits, producer groups, and others to develop and deliver the training. The bill would authorize $10,000,000 to be appropriated for fiscal years 2027 through 2032, but Congress would still need to provide the funds.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Merkley, Jeff [D-OR]
OR • D
Cosponsors
Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR]
OR • D
Sponsored 2/10/2026
Peter Welch
VT • D
Sponsored 2/10/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov