Farm Payment Limitation & Payment Eligibility (USDA/CCC)

Current understanding

To be populated as evidence accumulates.

Evidence log

• 2025-07-04 — An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14.: 2025 — Public Law 119-21 (HR1, the reconciliation act often referenced as OBBBA) is the underlying statute driving USDA/CCC’s conforming revisions to payment limitation and payment eligibility rules, and also extends 2018 farm bill programs that govern the payments to which those limits apply. (novelty: 3)
• 2025-03-28 — FARMLAND Act of 2025: FARMLAND Act of 2025 introduced to bar foreign landowners from Farm Service Agency programs, adding a citizenship/ownership-based eligibility restriction alongside existing payment limitation and eligibility rules. (novelty: 3)
• 2026-07-15 — Fairness for Small-Scale Farmers and Ranchers Act of 2026: cross-connection with fairness-for-small-scale-farmers-ranchers-act: Small-scale farmer fairness legislation often intersects with payment limitation and eligibility rules that govern how USDA/CCC support is distributed across farm sizes. (novelty: 2)
• 2025-07-10 — Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026: 2026 — FY2026 Agriculture-FDA appropriations bill (introduced) would fund the USDA/CCC programs under which payment limitation and eligibility rules are administered, without altering the underlying eligibility framework. (novelty: 2)
• 2025-04-09 — Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2025: cross-connection with conservation-reserve-enhancement-program: HR2758 would exempt CREP payments from the existing $50,000 CRP annual payment cap, directly modifying how USDA payment limitations apply to conservation program participants. (novelty: 2)
• 2025-03-28 — SOLAR Act: 2026 — SOLAR Act (introduced) would prohibit USDA financial assistance for solar energy projects that convert prime, unique, or locally important farmland, with limited exceptions for small-scale or locally approved projects — a payment-eligibility carve-out tied to land-use conversion rather than producer or payment caps. (novelty: 2)
• 2026-07-09 — Supplemental Disaster Assistance Programs, Marketing Assistance Loans, and Sugar Provisions: 2026 — USDA final rule conforming supplemental disaster assistance, marketing assistance loan, and sugar program regulations to OBBBA updates eligibility thresholds and payment rates for 2026–2031, sitting alongside the parallel OBBBA-conforming revisions to payment limitation and payment eligibility rules. (novelty: 2)
• 2026-06-23 — A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to consider certain acreage not planted due to a lack of irrigation water to be eligible for prevented planting payments, and for other purposes.: Introduced bill would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to treat acreage unplanted due to lack of irrigation water as eligible for prevented planting payments, potentially expanding the pool of acreage receiving farm program payments and intersecting with payment eligibility administration. (novelty: 2) (novelty: 2)
• 2026-06-01 — Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) Program: USDA/CCC is establishing the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) Program to provide one-time bridge payments to specialty crop producers; payment eligibility and limitation frameworks administered by CCC provide the underlying administrative context for these payments. (novelty: 2) (novelty: 2)
• 2026-06-02 — Payment Limitation and Payment Eligibility: USDA/CCC final rule revises payment limitation and payment eligibility regulations to conform with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and includes additional changes to improve farm program administration. (novelty: 2)

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