WASHINGTON, July 15, 2025 – The U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) is reducing red tape around the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)-related reviews, which will improve conservation delivery to America’s farmers and ranchers.

Today’s announcement builds on the Administration’s efforts to revise NEPA, in response to President Trump’s executive order on Unleashing American Energy that led to the Council on Environmental Quality’s rescinding its NEPA implementing regulations, which created a pathway for USDA and its agencies – like NRCS – to reform their NEPA regulations.

“NRCS is putting farmers first, and these commonsense changes will ensure the NEPA process does not cause unnecessary delays or stand in the way of delivering the critical support America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners rely on,” NRCS Chief Aubrey Bettencourt said.

About NEPA

NEPA requires all federal agencies to consider the environmental impact of their proposed actions before deciding whether and how to proceed.

NEPA’s aims are to ensure that agencies consider the potential environmental effects of their proposed actions in their decision-making processes and encourage public engagement in that process.

To comply with NEPA, agencies determine the appropriate level of review for a proposed action. Where required, these levels of review may be documented in an environmental impact statement (EIS), an environmental assessment (EA), or categorical exclusion.

A federal agency may establish categorical exclusions — categories of actions that the agency has determined normally do not significantly affect the quality of the human environment — in its agency NEPA procedures.

Notice with Revised Guidelines

The notice describes the categories of proposed actions for which NRCS intends to apply the categorical exclusions, the considerations that NRCS will use in determining the applicability of the categorical exclusions and the consultation between the agencies on the use of the categorical exclusions, including application of extraordinary circumstances.

The notice is available at the NRCS NEPA website under the “NRCS NEPA Regulations, Guidance, and Related Documents.”

More Information

For more than 90 years, NRCS has helped farmers, ranchers and forestland owners make investments in their operations and local communities to improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and wildlife habitat.  NRCS uses the latest science and technology to help keep working lands working, boost agricultural economies, and increase the competitiveness of American agriculture. NRCS provides one-on-one, personalized advice and financial assistance and works with producers to help them reach their goals through voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs. For more information, visit nrcs.usda.gov.

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