NACD ASKS PERDUE TO EXEMPT CONSERVATIONISTS FROM COSTLY SAM, DUNS REQUIREMENTS

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2017 – The National Association of Conservation Districts is encouraging Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to remove federal reporting requirements that hinder landowner participation in conservation programs.

In a letter sent today, NACD President Brent Van Dyke told Secretary Perdue that requiring federal conservation program participants to register with the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM) and to obtain a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number has prevented some of our nation’s agricultural producers from working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and their local conservation districts to put needed conservation on the ground.

Current law requires all incorporated business entities – including many farms, ranches, and forest operations – to complete SAM and DUNS requirements to receive financial assistance from federal agencies like NRCS. 

“Through face-to-face, hands-on conservation planning with landowners, conservation districts have seen how the SAM and DUNS reporting requirements have imposed burdens on farmers, ranchers, and private forest owners who protect and improve America’s natural resources by participating in federal conservation programs,” the letter reads.

Last Friday in Iowa, Secretary Perdue spoke to the importance of conservation in his first major farm policy speech, at one point telling the crowd “I’m on it” when asked if he would curb onerous paperwork for participants in conservation cost-share programs. NACD is hopeful the secretary’s understanding of this issue will lead him to provide much-needed regulatory relief for America’s conservationists.

To view the letter, click here to be redirected to NACD’s Newsroom.