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H.R. 5610 119th Congress House

Improving Drought Monitoring Act

Official title: To amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to extend the program providing for improvements to the United States Drought Monitor.

Introduced: September 26, 2025 Introduced by: David J. Taylor Republican · Ohio See on congress.gov
Agriculture and Food
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 Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps
Introduced
In committee
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Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Sep 26, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Sep 26, 2025
Introduced in House
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What's happening now September 26, 2025

Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Improving Drought Monitoring Act

This bill requires increased interagency cooperation in drought monitoring and response activities and reauthorizes the Improvements to the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) program through FY2030. 

Specifically, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) must establish an interagency working group to improve the availability of consistent, accurate, and reliable data for use in producing the USDM. (The USDM uses multiple indicators and indexes together with expert opinions and stakeholder information to estimate the intensity and effects of ongoing drought conditions across the United States. Using this data, the USDM map shows the location and intensity of drought across the United States.)

The interagency working group must submit a report to Congress and the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior that contains recommendations for changes in policies, regulations, guidance documents, or existing law related to USDM data. USDA, in coordination with the Departments of Commerce and the Interior, must incorporate, to the extent practicable, the recommendations of the working group to improve USDM data.

The bill also reauthorizes through FY2030 the Improvements to the USDM program, which requires USDA to coordinate with the National Drought Mitigation Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to enhance the collection of data to improve the accuracy of the USDM.

Further, the Farm Service Agency and the Forest Service must enter into a memorandum of understanding to better align their drought response activities.

 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 1
 Lobbying activity 5

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APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 5610: Improving Drought Monitoring Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5610/
MLA
"H.R. 5610: Improving Drought Monitoring Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5610/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 5610, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5610/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 5610: Improving Drought Monitoring Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5610/)
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