How would the grazing permit buyout program work?
The Voluntary Grazing Permit Buyout Act would allow federal grazing permittees and lessees to waive their full permit or lease back to the federal government in exchange for $175 per animal unit month (AUM). Permittees and lessees would no longer be liable for paying grazing fees for the retired permit/lease. Compensation paid to them would be based on the average paid grazing use over the last ten years the allotment was grazed by the permittee or lessee or their predecessor(s). Years of grazing nonuse would be excluded from this average. Since it is impossible to assess permittee/lessee demand for buyout or how much Congress would appropriate for such a program, federal payments could require some time. In this case, the Voluntary Grazing Permit Buyout Act would allow permittees or lessees to choose not to graze for as long as they desired until funding for their permit buyout became available (the payout amount would be based on the 10-year average grazing use at the time of the buy
