St. Bernard Parish sued the federal government over a dispute with the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) regarding a cooperative agreement for watershed protection work. The parish tried to sue in federal court for breach of contract, but the court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction. The appeals court upheld the dismissal, ruling that Congress created a special administrative review process for these NRCS agreements that must be completed before any court case can be filed.
If you have a dispute with NRCS cooperative agreements, you must exhaust the administrative review process first—you cannot skip straight to federal court
The Tucker Act (which normally allows contract claims against the federal government) does not apply to NRCS cooperative agreements because Congress created an alternative dispute resolution system