Agricultural Emissions Data Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4845 To require the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct surveys to collect data regarding the prevention, reduction, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration, and forest wood and tree carbon sequestration, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OCTOBER 22 (legislative day, OCTOBER 19), 2020 Mr. ROBERTS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry A BILL To require the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct surveys to collect data regarding the prevention, reduction, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon se- questration, and forest wood and tree carbon sequestra- tion, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Agricultural Emissions 4 Data Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4845.IS S4845 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4845 IS SEC. 2. SURVEYS TO COLLECT DATA REGARDING GREEN- 1 HOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, SOIL CARBON SE- 2 QUESTRATION, AND FOREST WOOD AND 3 TREE CARBON SEQUESTRATION. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture (re- 5 ferred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’), through the ef- 6 forts described in subsection (c), shall conduct surveys, 7 and other data collection and data analysis using advanced 8 methods as appropriate, of farmers, ranchers, private for- 9 est landowners, cooperatives, and agricultural businesses, 10 including nonprofit organizations, to collect agricultural 11 subsector-specific information and data regarding— 12 (1) the prevention, reduction, and mitigation of 13 greenhouse gas emissions, including livestock emis- 14 sions reductions; 15 (2) soil carbon sequestration; and 16 (3) forest wood and tree carbon sequestration. 17 (b) ESTABLISHING FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL BASE- 18 LINES.—The establishment of Federal agricultural base- 19 lines for the prevention, reduction, and mitigation of 20 greenhouse gas emissions (including livestock emissions 21 reductions), soil carbon sequestration, and forest wood 22 and tree carbon sequestration shall be determined by mod- 23 eling based on, from the Department of Agriculture— 24 (1) the information and data collected under 25 subsection (a); and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4845.IS S4845 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4845 IS (2) information and data, as appropriate, col- 1 lected through the efforts described in subsection (c) 2 before the date of enactment of this Act. 3 (c) SURVEY AUTHORITIES.—The Secretary shall con- 4 duct surveys, data collection, and data analysis under sub- 5 section (a) through— 6 (1) the census of agriculture under section 2 of 7 the Census of Agriculture Act of 1997 (7 U.S.C. 8 2204g); 9 (2) the preparation of annual agricultural sta- 10 tistics by the National Agricultural Statistics Service 11 under— 12 (A) the first section of the Act of May 27, 13 1912 (37 Stat. 118, chapter 135; 7 U.S.C. 14 476); 15 (B) the first section of the Act of June 24, 16 1936 (49 Stat. 1898, chapter 745; 7 U.S.C. 17 951); 18 (C) section 526 of the Revised Statutes (7 19 U.S.C. 2204); 20 (D) section 10016 of the Agricultural Act 21 of 2014 (7 U.S.C. 2204h); and 22 (E) section 7407 of the Farm Security and 23 Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 24 5925c); 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4845.IS S4845 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4845 IS (3) the agricultural resource management sur- 1 vey conducted by the Economic Research Service 2 and the National Agricultural Statistics Service 3 under— 4 (A) sections 202 through 208 of the Agri- 5 cultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1621 6 et seq.); and 7 (B) section 1 of the Act of June 29, 1935 8 (49 Stat. 436, chapter 338; 7 U.S.C. 3104); 9 (4) the dairy gas emissions model established 10 by the Agricultural Research Service under section 1 11 of the Act of June 29, 1935 (49 Stat. 436, chapter 12 338; 7 U.S.C. 3104); 13 (5) National Animal Health Monitoring System 14 studies, including beef cow and calf studies, beef 15 feedlot studies, swine studies, dairy studies, sheep 16 studies, and poultry studies, and the health and pro- 17 ductivity audit, carried out by the Animal and Plant 18 Health Inspection Service under the Animal Health 19 Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 8301 et seq.); 20 (6) the forest inventory and analysis database 21 established under section 3(e) of the Forest and 22 Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act of 23 1978 (16 U.S.C. 1642(e)); 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4845.IS S4845 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4845 IS (7) the natural resources inventory established 1 under section 302 of the Rural Development Act of 2 1972 (7 U.S.C. 1010a); and 3 (8) additional surveys, data collection, and data 4 analysis administered by the Department of Agri- 5 culture, as the Secretary determines to be appro- 6 priate. 7 (d) SUBMISSION.—Consistent with section 1770 of 8 the Food Security Act of 1985 (7 U.S.C. 2276), the Sec- 9 retary shall submit to the Administrator of the Environ- 10 mental Protection Agency and the head of any other ap- 11 propriate Federal department or agency, and make pub- 12 licly available, the results of the surveys conducted under 13 subsection (a), as the Secretary determines to be appro- 14 priate. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:36 Oct 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4845.IS S4845 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS