INDIANA BULLETIN NO. 300-9-35 

SUBJECT: LTP – Duplicative Payments among USDA Program Payments

Purpose:  To identify where duplicative payments may occur between the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and other USDA conservation programs and to provide guidance listing the practices that would be considered duplicative in Indiana.

Expiration Date:  September 30, 2010

Background:  A Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) participant may not schedule the installation of enhancements or practices through CSP that are earning financial assistance payments through any another USDA conservation program on the same land at the same time (CPM 440 Part 508.94).  The 2009 CSP enhancements/practices were compared to practices available through other USDA conservation programs and a list was developed as a reference tool for the field during CSP contract development in an effort to evaluate and avoid duplicate payments.

For all CSP applications, it will be necessary to review existing EQIP and WHIP contracts with the CSP applicant and eliminate from the CSP contract any practice(s) and/or enhancement(s) that would result in duplicate payments.  Only active AWEP, EQIP and WHIP (includes CCPI) contracts will be evaluated for potential duplicate payments.  ProTracts has a feature on the participant page (Other Programs) which will identify any other active contracts for the applicant.  It must be documented in the assistance notes (NRCS-CPA-06) that other contracts were checked for any potential duplicate payment. The attached list (Attachment IB 300-9-35) of conservation practices is to be used to determine which practices would be duplicative and would need to be removed from a CSP application prior to obligation into a contract.

Practices scheduled in other USDA program contracts will not be modified out of those contracts in order to include them in CSP to address additional resource concerns and the practices can receive ranking points in the CMT.  Conservation Security Program, CRP, GRP and WRP land under existing USDA contracts is not eligible for payment in CSP; therefore, they do not need to be evaluated with regard to duplicate payments.

Examples:  

1). If a practice or enhancement has been implemented through EQIP at the time of the application, then that existing activity will be reflected in the CMT resource inventory and existing activities conservation performance scoring.  This does not constitute a duplicate payment.

2). If a practice (listed on the duplicate payment list) is scheduled to be applied through EQIP during the life of the CSP contract, then the CMT can be answered “yes” to credit the applicant for meeting an additional resource concern stewardship threshold and will receive ranking points.  However, since the practice is being paid for in EQIP, a different practice/enhancement must be selected to receive payment points for that land use.

3). Likewise, if an enhancement (listed on duplicate payment list) is scheduled to be applied through EQIP (as practice) during the life of the CSP contract, then that enhancement will not be considered or scheduled as an additional activity in CMT because:

·        The activity is already scheduled, and will be installed through EQIP; and

·        The scheduled overlap of enhancements presents a significant risk of duplicate payment.

4). Once a participant is under a CSP contract and has scheduled enhancements/practices (listed on the duplicate payment list) through the CMT to address additional resource concerns, they can not sign these practices up in the above listed USDA programs for payment, since this would be considered duplicative. 

NOTE: Use the attached list as a guide; however, any additional potential duplicate payment scenarios that have not been listed should be evaluated by the District Conservationist and documented in the assistance notes. 

If you have any questions, please contact Teresah Caire, ASTC-Programs or Shannon Zezula, State Resource Conservationist (SRC), at 317/290-3200 ext 3.

/s/

JANE E. HARDISTY
State Conservationist

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