Agricultural conservation began in the 1930s with a focus on soil and water issues associated with production and environmental concerns on the farm. By the 1980s, agricultural conservation policies broadened to include environmental issues beyond soil and water, especially issues related to production (off the farm). Many of the current agricultural conservation programs were enacted as part of the 1985 farm bill ( P.L. 99-198 , Food Security Act of 1985). These programs have been reauthorized, modified, and expanded, and several new programs have been created, particularly in subsequent omnibus farm bills. While the number of programs has increased and new techniques to address resource problems continue to emerge, the basic approach has remained unchanged—voluntary farmer participation encouraged by financial and technical assistance, education, and basic and applied research. The Conservation title (Title II) of the Agricultural Act of 2014 ( P.L. 113-79 ), the 2014 farm bill, was largely uncontroversial. Both the House-passed farm bill ( H.R. 2642 ) and the Senate-passed farm bill ( S. 954 ) reauthorized many of the largest conservation programs and consolidated others to create new ones. The major difference between the two bills was the extension of conservation compliance provisions to the federally funded portion of crop insurance and the total reduction in funding for the title. Total mandatory spending for the title is projected at $28.3 billion over 5 years (FY2014-FY2018) and $57.6 billion over 10 years (FY2012-FY2023). The estimated spending impact of the 2014 farm bill's Conservation title is projected to decrease by $208 million over 5 years and close to $4.0 billion over 10 years. Agricultural conservation has been a stand-alone title in farm bills beginning with the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981 (1981 farm bill, P.L. 97-98 ). Its significance has grown with each passing omnibus farm bill. Debate on the 2014 farm bill focused on a number of controversial issues. While many did not consider conservation to be controversial, nonetheless, a number of policy issues shaped the final version of the title and ultimately its role in the enacted farm bill. Before the 1985 farm bill, few conservation programs existed and only two would be considered large by today's standards. Prior to the 2014 farm bill, there were over 20 distinct conservation programs with annual spending greater than $5 billion. The differences and number of these programs created general confusion about the purpose, participation, and policies of the programs (see below for a list of conservation program acronyms). Discussion about simplifying or consolidating conservation programs to reduce overlap and duplication, and to generate savings, has continued for a number of years. The 2014 farm bill contained several program consolidation measures, including the repeal of 12 active and inactive programs, the creation of two new programs, and the merging of two programs into existing ones. Specific programmatic changes are discussed further in the " Program Changes " section. Federal policies and programs traditionally have offered voluntary incentives to producers to plan and apply resource-conserving practices on private lands. It was not until the 1985 farm bill that Congress took an alternative approach to agricultural conservation with the enactment of highly erodible land conservation (sodbuster) and wetland conservation (swampbuster)—collectively known as "conservation compliance." Both provisions remain significant today and require that in exchange for certain U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program benefits, including commodity support payments, disaster payments, farm loans, and conservation program payments, to name a few, a producer agrees to maintain a minimum level of conservation on highly erodible land and to not convert wetlands to crop production. One of the most controversial issues in the 2014 farm bill debate was whether federal crop insurance subsidies should be included on the list of program benefits that could be lost if a producer were found to be out of compliance. Ultimately the 2014 farm bill did add federal crop insurance subsidies to the list of benefits that could be lost and extended limited protection for native sod in select states (sodsaver). Specific programmatic changes are discussed further in the " Compliance Programs " section below. Land retirement programs (e.g., the Conservation Reserve Program, CRP) provide producers with financial incentives to temporarily remove from production and restore environmentally sensitive land. In contrast, working lands programs (e.g., the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, EQIP) allow land to remain in production and provide producers with financial incentives to adopt resource-conserving practices. Over time, high commodity prices, changing land rental rates, and new conservation technologies have led to a shift in farm bill conservation policy away from the more traditional land retirement programs toward an increased focus on conservation working lands programs. Some of this shift has already occurred in the last decade and was continued in the 2014 farm bill as the percentage of mandatory program funding for land retirement programs has declined relative to working lands programs (see Figure 1 ). Most conservation and wildlife organizations support both land retirement and working lands programs; however, the appropriate "mix" continues to be debated. Some are still divided between shorter-term land retirement programs such as CRP and longer-term easement programs such as the new wetland reserve easements under the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). Unlike land retirement programs, easement programs impose a permanent or longer-term land-use restriction that is voluntarily placed on the land in exchange for a government payment. Supporters of easement programs cite a more cost-effective investment in sustainable ecosystems for long-term wildlife benefits. Short-term land retirement program supporters cite the increased flexibility, which can generate broader participation than permanent or long-term easement programs. There has also been a rising interest in programs that partner with state and local communities to target conservation funding to local areas of concern. These partnership programs leverage private funding with federal funding to multiply the level of assistance in a select area. A number of these partnership programs were repealed in the 2014 farm bill and replaced with the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). RCPP is designed to allow local organizations to partner with USDA to address resource concerns specific to that area. Partners are required to supply a significant portion of the overall cost of the project. Most farm bill conservation programs are authorized to receive mandatory funding. The Conservation title makes up 6% of the total projected farm bill spending, or $58 billion of the total $956 billion in 10-year mandatory funding authorized in the 2014 farm bill. Like many titles in the farm bill debate, discussion was driven in part by the need for budget reduction. While a few titles did receive an increase in authorized mandatory funding over the projected baseline, three major titles did not, including Conservation. Ultimately the Conservation title was reduced by $3.97 billion over 10 years, or 24% of the total $16.5 billion in savings (see Figure 2 ). If the baseline to write the 2014 farm bill had not been reduced by sequestration, the enacted 2014 farm bill could have been credited for reducing conservation spending by about $6 billion over 10 years. But sequestration had already been factored into the baseline, so the official CBO score remains at $3.97 billion reduction from the Conservation title. In addition to sequestration, other budgetary dynamics may have an effect on farm bill conservation programs in the future. Since the 1996 farm bill, the number and size of conservation programs receiving mandatory funding has continued to grow. Currently the level of mandatory spending for conservation is roughly five times that of discretionary spending for conservation. For more than a decade, appropriators have placed limits on mandatory spending authorized in the farm bill, including a number of conservation programs. These limits are also known as CHIMPS, "changes in mandatory program spending." Many of these mandatory programs usually are not part of the appropriations process since funding is authorized in the farm bill for a specific time period (FY2014-FY2018) and is assumed to be available based on the statute and without further congressional action. Most of these conservation spending reductions, however, were at the request of both the Bush and Obama Administrations. The mix of programs and amount of reduction has varied from year to year. Some programs, such as CRP, have not been reduced by appropriators in recent years, while others, such as EQIP, have been repeatedly reduced below authorized levels. Even with these reductions, total mandatory funding for conservation programs has remained relatively constant at around $5 billion annually for the past five years. Conservation advocates are concerned that future CHIMPS would further deepen the cuts made by potential future sequestration and the 2014 farm bill reductions. The 2014 farm bill reauthorized, repealed, consolidated, and amended a number of conservation programs. Generally, farm bill conservation programs can be grouped into the following categories based on similarities: working land programs, land retirement programs, easement programs, conservation compliance programs, and other programs and overarching provisions (see Table 1 and page 2 for a list of conservation program acronyms). Most of these programs are authorized to receive mandatory funding (i.e., they do not require an annual appropriation) and include authorities that expire with other farm bill programs at the end of FY2018. Other types of conservation programs—such as watershed programs, emergency programs, and technical assistance—are authorized in other non-farm bill legislation. Most of these programs have permanent authorities and receive appropriations annually through the discretionary appropriations process. These programs are not generally addressed in the context of a farm bill and are not covered in detail in this report, except for cases where the 2014 farm bill made amendments to the program. General programmatic amendments, reauthorizations, and consolidations are discussed in the sections below. The Appendix provides a series of tables detailing the changes enacted in the 2014 farm bill as compared to prior law. The 2014 farm bill included several program consolidation measures, including the repeal of 12 active and inactive programs, the creation of two new programs, and the merging of two programs into existing ones.