119-s910

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 910 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 910

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.

_______________________________________________________________________

 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.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Farm Ownership Improvement Act''.

SEC. 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:

``

SEC. 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.''.
 <all>