S 2215 — Restoring America’s Floodplains Act

Summary

This bill amends the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 to expand the Secretary of Agriculture's authority regarding floodplain easements—conservation agreements on flood-prone agricultural land. The bill authorizes the Secretary to provide financial and technical assistance for restoring vegetation and restoring the water-holding capacity and ecological functions of wetlands on floodplain easements. The Secretary is given discretion to enter into compatible-use agreements with private landowners and agreements with government agencies and nonprofits to manage and maintain vegetative cover and wetlands restoration measures on these easements. The bill also addresses procedures for modifying and terminating floodplain easements.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA] (R-IA)

1 cosponsor

Sen. Bennet, Michael F. [D-CO] (D-CO)

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Joni Ernst’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

NULL $57,653
CAPITAL GROUP $40,000
SOROBAN CAPITAL $13,200
CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES $7,500
GOOGLE $6,800

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Joni Ernst → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)

Jul 9, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. · senate
Jul 9, 2025 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

July 9, 2025

Ms. Ernst (for herself and Mr. Bennet) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

A BILL

To amend the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide for floodplain easement restoration and management, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Restoring America’s Floodplains Act”.

SEC. 2. EMERGENCY WATERSHED PROGRAM FLOODPLAIN EASEMENT RESTORATION AND MANAGEMENT.

Section 403 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2203) is amended—

(1) in subsection (a)—

(A) by striking the subsection designation and heading and all that follows through “The Secretary” and inserting the following:

“(a) Authorizations.—

“(1) In general.—The Secretary”; and

(B) by adding at the end the following:

“(2) Easement restoration.—The Secretary may provide financial and technical assistance for restoring adapted vegetative cover and the hydrologic functions and values of wetlands on floodplain easements acquired under paragraph (1).

“(3) Easement management.—The Secretary shall have sole discretion for entering into compatible-use agreements with landowners and agreements with government agencies or nongovernmental organizations to address maintenance and management of the vegetative cover and wetlands restoration measures on floodplain easements acquired under paragraph

(1).”; and

(2) in subsection (b), by striking the subsection designation and heading and all that follows through the “The Secretary” in the matter preceding subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) and inserting the following:

S 2215

Introduced