Farm Ownership Improvement Act

119 S910 IS: Farm Ownership Improvement Act U.S. Senate 2025-03-10 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. II 119th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 910 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 10, 2025 Mr. Welch (for himself, Mr. Hoeven , and Ms. Smith ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry A BILL To require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a pilot program to implement a pre-qualification or pre-approval process for farmers and ranchers with respect to a direct farm ownership loan under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Farm Ownership Improvement Act . 2. Direct farm ownership loan pilot program Subtitle D of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act is amended by inserting after section 374 ( 7 U.S.C. 2008i ) the following: 375. Direct farm ownership loan pilot program (a) Establishment of pilot program Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of the Farm Ownership Improvement Act , the Secretary shall establish a 5-year pilot program (referred to in this section as the pilot program ) to implement a pre-qualification or pre-approval process for farmers and ranchers with respect to a direct farm ownership loan under subtitle A. (b) Borrower viability and repayment assessment In carrying out section 360(b) with respect to a participant in the pilot program, the Secretary, as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, may make use of alternative methods, including financial benchmarking, to reliably evaluate the financial viability of the participant and the likelihood of repayment of the applicable loan. (c) Limitation This section shall not be interpreted to repeal any borrowing requirement imposed under subtitle A. (d) Outreach priority In conducting outreach relating to the pilot program, the Secretary shall prioritize outreach to organizations that have demonstrated engagement with beginning farmers or ranchers. (e) Evaluation and reports The Secretary shall— (1) evaluate the pilot program on an ongoing basis; and (2) annually submit to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives a written report that includes— (A) a description of the performance outcomes of the pilot program, including stakeholder and participant evaluations, assessments, and participation demographics, that includes the information described in section 5413(b)(1)(A)(iv) of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 ( 7 U.S.C. 2008x(b)(1)(A)(iv) ); and (B) a recommendation as to the value of the pilot program, including whether to authorize a permanent program modeled on the pilot program. .