Agriculture committee moves to insert CREP expansion into House Bill 2255, omits electric‑vehicle charging language

The Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources discussed amendments to House Bill 2255 on the floor, agreeing to move forward with language from House Bill 2111 to expand the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) statewide cap from 40,000 to 60,000 acres while omitting proposed sections on electric‑vehicle charging‑station inspection and testing.

Why it matters: The change would raise the statewide CREP cap, adjust county limits, and add an annual per‑county enrollment limit intended to prevent large single‑year enrollments in one county; committee members said those adjustments respond to stakeholder concerns about concentrated enrollments and regional applicability.

What the committee discussed and agreed to move forward: Committee members debated whether to reinstate sections 23 and 24, which would have directed department involvement with inspecting or testing electric‑vehicle charging stations. One committee member said the committee and the department were “not willing to accept adding those back in” now, noting the department is “not ready to go down this road at this time.” The committee said those sections remain stricken for the present and could be revisited in a future session.

Members then discussed inserting the contents of House Bill 2111 into 2255. That bill, as described during the discussion, would expand CREP from 40,000 acres to 60,000 acres statewide. The bill retains a per‑county cap expressed as a percentage of the statewide total; under current language that percentage is 25 percent. Committee members pointed out that applying 25 percent to a 60,000‑acre cap would allow up to 15,000 acres in a single county (25% of 60,000), compared with the prior 10,000‑acre per‑county maximum when the statewide cap was 40,000.

A committee member proposed lowering the per‑county percentage to 20 percent, which would make the maximum per county 12,500 acres under a 60,000‑acre statewide cap. Department staff noted an additional amendment in the House that would limit new enrollments to no more than 1,600 acres in any one county in a single year to address concerns about sudden large enrollments. Josh McGahn, assistant secretary at the Kansas Department of Agriculture, described the 1,600‑acre cap as intended to prevent “too much enrolled in one year,” and said counties vary widely in existing enrollments; he noted “one is at 9,000” acres while others have fewer than 1,000.

Committee members said they were willing to proceed by inserting HB2111 into 2255 with the change to a 20 percent county maximum and by accepting the 1,600‑acre annual per‑county limit. Members also confirmed they would not reinsert the EV charging inspection/testing language in sections 23 and 24 at this time and that the matter could be revisited later if the department indicates it is prepared to pursue inspections or testing.

No formal roll‑call vote is recorded in the transcript excerpt; participants described a working agreement to move forward with the amended language and to take the House bills first as appropriate for the process.

Background and context: Committee members discussed practical questions that arose from the bill language, including what constitutes a “whole field” enrollment under CREP (discussants said the term can vary locally and gave examples such as pivot corners versus entire fields). They also noted that CREP enrollment is likely to be targeted to certain watershed areas rather than statewide adoption at the same rate, and that the program differs from broader federal Conservation Reserve Program enrollments.

What’s next: Committee members indicated they would proceed with HB2255 as amended (inserting HB2111 with the 20 percent county cap and the 1,600‑acre annual limit) and would consider the EV charging provisions again only if the department indicates readiness. The transcript does not record a formal committee vote in this excerpt.