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This bill authorizes the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a voluntary Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Certification Program to help reduce entry barriers into voluntary environmental credit markets for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners. A voluntary environmental credit market is a market through which agriculture and forestry credits may be bought or sold.
Entities eligible to participate in the program are (1) providers of technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, or private forest landowners in carrying out sustainable land use management practices that prevent, reduce, or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, or sequester carbon; or (2) third-party verifiers that conduct the verification of the processes described in the protocols for voluntary environmental credit markets.
Among other requirements, USDA must publish (1) a list of protocols and qualifications for eligible entities; (2) information describing how entities may self-certify under the program; (3) information describing how entities may obtain the expertise to meet the protocols and qualifications; and (4) instructions and suggestions to assist farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners in facilitating the development of agriculture or forestry credits and accessing voluntary environmental credit markets.
USDA must also establish an advisory council to make recommendations regarding the list of protocols and qualifications, best practices, and voluntary environmental credit markets.
The bill also rescinds certain funds provided in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and makes the funds available for the certification program.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, describing S. 1251 as passed Senate on Jun 24, 2021. It is not the text of the measure; a later amendment may have changed what it does.
Jun 24, 2021Each bar: ✓ Yea from the bottom, ✕ Nay aboveJun 24, 2021
Senate Jun 24, 2021 · the primary vote
Lee Amdt. No. 2119
Bill Passed
92 Yea 8 Nay
Crossed both parties 7 of 100 voting members broke with their own party: 4 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
DemocratsIndependentsRepublicansFilled: YeaRing: NayGrey: not voting or present
100 members on this roll call, from the official Senate record. Party majorities need at least five voting members, so an independent never counts as breaking with a party.
Signing on is not a vote: a member can cosponsor S. 1251 and vote against it. 37 signed when it was filed.
Organizations that named S. 1251 in a lobbying disclosure. Only those that cited the bill by number appear, so this is a floor, not a full list.
447 disclosures name this measure. Retrieved from LDA.gov on 2026-10-05. Senate Office of Public Records cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from LDA.gov.