Timing of the FY 2024 RCPP competition
The fiscal year 2023 Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) competition closed on August 18th, 2023. Applicants submitted 163 proposals, the second most under the 2018 Farm Bill (over 180 were submitted for the 2019 RCPP Classic competition). The total funding requested was $2.2 billion, which averages out to $13.5 million per proposal. This is a significant increase over past years and remarkable considering that until the FY 2023 competition, the award cap was $10 million.
With the fiscal year 2023 Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) competition in the rearview mirror, let’s look at what might be in store for the fiscal year 2024 competition.
The FY 2023 RCPP competition was announced in mid-May 2023, quite late when compared to recent years. There are reasons to believe that the FY 2024 funding announcement could come much earlier, perhaps even in the first three months (October-December) of FY 2024. Several factors, however, could push the funding announcement later, perhaps even as late as next summer or fall.
The biggest complicating factor is the next Farm Bill. At this point, it is apparent that Congress will not pass a new Farm Bill by the time the current Farm Bill expires at the end of September 2023. That means that come October 1, 2023, NRCS will have at its disposal--pending apportionment from the Office of Management and Budget--$300 million in RCPP Farm Bill funds (since last summer’s Inflation Reduction Act extended RCPP’s authorization to FY 2031) plus $800 million in IRA funding, for a total of $1.1 billion. This is more than double the previous RCPP funding high of $500 million, just set in FY 2023.
The $1.1 billion—in particular the IRA funding—will be burning a hole in NRCS’s pocket come October 1st. It is no secret that Congressional Republicans have designs on taking all or part of IRA funding for other uses, leaving the IRA funding in a continuous state of peril. This would argue that the agency should do all it can to post the FY 2024 funding opportunity as soon as possible, even in October 2023.
However, NRCS must weigh the uncertain timing of passage of the next Farm Bill. If in October, it looks like a new Farm Bill could be enacted by the end of December 2023, the agency would likely hold off on posting the FY 2024 funding opportunity. It does not make much sense to have partners developing proposals based on the 2018 Farm Bill rules at the time Congress passes a new Farm Bill modifying the program. There is a possibility that, if the new Farm Bill makes only minor changes to the program, NRCS could request that Congress add language to the bill allowing an already-issued FY 2024 funding opportunity to continue under the 2018 Farm Bill rules.
If the funding announcement is not posted this fall and Congress passes a new Farm Bill in December, the FY 2024 funding announcement is unlikely to arrive until the spring of 2024, at best. After the existing Farm Bill passed in December 2018, the first RCPP funding announcement was not released until September 2019, after the agency had time to digest the many major changes to the new RCPP program. With a December 2023 Farm Bill, one could foresee the first RCPP funding announcement coming in spring or summer 2024 (if the Farm Bill introduces minor program changes) or fall 2024 (if the Farm Bill introduces major program changes).
If in September 2023, the 2018 Farm Bill is extended into, let’s say, March 2024, one can imagine the agency scrambling to release the FY 2024 funding announcement in October or November and pushing to complete the competition as quickly as possible. NRCS would then be ready to address the new Farm Bill and have some running room to prepare for the FY 2025 competition.
Another complicating factor is the FY 2024 appropriations process, which has broken down along partisan lines in the House of Representatives. This could impact the rollout of the FY 2024 RCPP funding announcement in three ways:
A government shutdown could affect NRCS’s ability to work on the announcement.
A faction of House Republicans continues to push for repeal or rescission of IRA funding.
A protracted appropriations battle would further delay passage of a new Farm Bill.
One more thing to consider—NRCS is unlikely to release the FY 2024 funding announcement until the FY 2023 awards have been announced. By the time FY 2024 proposals are due, the agency would want partners who applied in FY 2023 to know whether or not they were successful so that unsuccessful partners can take another swing and newly announced awardees can stand down. In the FY 2023 funding announcement, NRCS listed December 2023 as the expected timing of an award announcement. This would point away from a FY 2024 funding announcement as early as October 2023. Keep an eye on the timing of the FY 2023 RCPP awards for a clue to the timing of the FY 2024 announcement.
Finally, NRCS’s desire to make further improvements to RCPP could impact FY 2024 timing. The FY 2023 announcement made several substantive changes to the program that helped delay rollout of the FY 2023 announcement. If additional changes are made for FY 2024, particularly changes that require substantive changes to the Portal through which NRCS accepts RCPP proposals and manages the program, that could delay development and rollout of the FY 2024 funding announcement. NRCS has several internal teams working on RCPP program improvements. It is not known at this time what, if any, changes NRCS plans for FY 2024. Further, the timing and substance of any agency-driven RCPP changes would be impacted by timing of the new Farm Bill.
Whew—that’s a lot for NRCS to think about! It all adds up to the RCPP FY 2024 funding announcement being posted sometime between October 2023 and the fall of 2024. The first clues that will help bring clarity to the situation will come at the end of September when Congress must address appropriations and potentially an extension of the current Farm Bill.
