Sponsors (27)
The bill trades clearer, race‑ and gender‑neutral USDA eligibility rules and limited new relending priority for heirs' property for the removal of statutory recognition and targeted preferences for socially disadvantaged and women producers—streamlining administration but likely reducing targeted assistance, credit access, and civil‑rights monitoring for historically underserved agricultural communities.
All applicants to USDA programs would be treated without race- or gender-based preferences, creating uniform, non‑preferential application procedures for farmers, ranchers, and agricultural businesses.
Clarifies and consolidates USDA program eligibility language (removing a cross‑referenced category and explicitly limiting race/gender preferences), reducing legal ambiguity and simplifying administration for the Department and state partners.
Owners of heirs' property in States that adopt the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act would gain prioritized access for relending under 7 U.S.C. 1936c(d), improving credit access for some rural property owners.
Farmers and ranchers from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups lose explicit statutory recognition and related program preferences, reducing priority for loans, outreach, technical assistance, and other targeted USDA supports—likely decreasing credit access and harming farm viability for many.
Women farmers and women‑owned agricultural businesses could lose gender-targeted supports and enhanced benefits, reducing resources available to historically underrepresented producers and impairing business development.
Removing the statutory category used to identify 'socially disadvantaged' producers undermines civil‑rights monitoring and makes it harder to track, enforce, and target assistance to historically underserved groups.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Removes "socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers" from USDA statutes and bans race- or gender-based preferences in all USDA programs.
Official title: To strike references to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in Federal law, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 20, 2026 by Mark Harris · Last progress April 20, 2026
Removes the statutory category “socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers” from several USDA laws and bars the Department of Agriculture from giving race- or gender-based preferences, priorities, or enhanced benefits in any USDA program. The bill rewrites multiple definitions and program provisions to eliminate language that had identified socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as a distinct beneficiary class, and it adds a general prohibition on race- or gender-based program advantages across USDA programs. The changes affect federal farm programs, lending and development programs, marketing and crop insurance authorities, and program priority rules by narrowing or deleting special treatment language tied to the "socially disadvantaged" category and by forbidding USDA from applying race- or gender-based preferences going forward.