S. 795 — Farmers Freedom Act of 2025

This section revises the definition of “navigable waters” under the Clean Water Act to exclude prior converted cropland—land drained or manipulated for agricultural production before December 23, 1985, including USDA-designated areas—unless abandoned (not used for or in support of agricultural purposes at least once in the prior five years, as determined by EPA) and reverted to wetlands. (Agricultural purposes include grazing, haying, idling for conservation or soil recovery, irrigation tailwater storage, farm-raised fish, cranberry bogs, and nutrient retention; wetlands are areas inundated or saturated to support vegetation adapted to saturated soils.) It prohibits EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers from applying the change-in-use policy of the 2023 “Revised Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’” rule (88 Fed. Reg. 3004) or similar policies to prior converted cropland. (Thus, such cropland remains exempt from Clean Water Act jurisdiction unless it reverts to wetlands.)