S. 4912 · 119th Congress
BUFFER Act
Key: what the circles and colors mean
Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:
Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.
Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.
Not yet voted on. This bill is still a proposal: it hasn't reached a floor vote, and its text can change in committee or on the floor before any vote.
D
WelchSponsor1 cosponsor · 1 I
1 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
Building Up Farmland Frontiers for Ecological Resilience Act or the BUFFER Act
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Jun 24, 2026
Building Up Farmland Frontiers for Ecological Resilience Act or the BUFFER Act
This bill provides that certain land (that is under state regulations) is eligible to participate under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Under CRP, the Department of Agriculture provides annual payments to agricultural producers to take highly erodible and environmentally sensitive land out of production and install resource-conserving practices.
Specifically, land otherwise eligible under the program remains eligible for enrollment even if a tribal, state, or other local law, ordinance, or other regulation requires any resource-conserving or environmental protection measure or practice. The bill includes an exception that makes the land ineligible under the program if the implementation requirement has been imposed by an administrative order or a court order.
Current regulations exclude from enrollment eligibility (with exceptions) land that is subject to tribal, state, or other local laws, ordinances, or other regulations that require any resource-conserving or environmental protection measures or practices.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: BUFFER Act
Also known as: Building Up Farmland Frontiers for Ecological Resilience Act
Latest action (Jun 24, 2026): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Policy area: Agriculture and Food · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Jun 24, 2026
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.