Sponsors (17)
The bill centralizes and promotes agritourism to boost rural incomes and provide technical support, but it increases federal administrative costs and may raise safety, land‑use, and compliance burdens for small farms and nearby communities.
Rural communities and farm-based businesses will likely see increased economic activity and higher local tourism revenue as USDA promotion and coordination of agritourism expands.
Stakeholders (states, local governments, and rural communities) will have a single USDA Office and Director to centralize agritourism efforts, improving interagency coordination and easier access to federal resources and programs.
Small and family-run farms and agritourism operators will gain technical assistance, mentorship, and best-practice guidance to improve marketing, financial planning, and business viability.
Taxpayers and other USDA priorities may face higher costs because creating and running new agritourism programs and an Office will increase administrative spending and could divert funding from other farm programs, with no specified offsets.
Farmers, agritourism operators, and nearby residents may face increased safety, liability, traffic, noise, and land‑use conflicts as visitor traffic and events grow on working farms.
Small agritourism operators could incur new administrative and compliance burdens from USDA program updates and interagency coordination, raising time and cost requirements for running their businesses.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates an Office of Agritourism at USDA led by a Director to promote, coordinate, and provide technical assistance for agritourism nationwide.
Creates an Office of Agritourism inside the Department of Agriculture and requires the Secretary to appoint a senior official as Director to promote, coordinate, and provide technical assistance for agritourism nationwide. It states congressional findings about the economic, educational, and social benefits of agritourism and makes small technical changes to existing USDA statutory sections to preserve authority to carry out the new office. The bill sets duties for the Director (outreach, interagency coordination, program updates, technical assistance, and review of farm enterprise development programs) but does not specify new funding or an effective date.
Introduced May 15, 2025 by Suhas Subramanyam · Last progress May 15, 2025