Sponsors (27)
The bill standardizes and clarifies USDA eligibility rules and ends race- and gender-based preferences—simplifying administration and creating formal equal‑treatment for applicants—but in doing so removes statutory recognition and targeted assistance for historically disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, likely reducing their access to credit, grants, and services and prompting administrative and legal disruption.
USDA administrators and applicants: program eligibility rules are clarified and consolidated, reducing legal ambiguity and simplifying administration across multiple USDA programs.
All applicants to USDA programs: race- and gender-based preferences are removed so applicants are treated without race- or gender-based preference in procedures and eligibility determinations.
Owners of heirs' property in States adopting the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act: gain priority for relending under 7 U.S.C. 1936c(d), improving access to certain USDA relending funds.
Historically disadvantaged producers (racial minorities, women, and 'socially disadvantaged' groups): lose explicit statutory recognition and targeted program preferences, reducing prioritized access to loans, outreach, and technical assistance across USDA programs.
Farmers and ranchers from historically disadvantaged groups: will face reduced access to specific economic supports (down-payment loans, risk‑management programs, targeted grants), potentially harming farm viability, credit access, and business continuity.
Civil-rights monitors and program administrators: removing the statutory category will complicate civil‑rights monitoring, data tracking, and targeting of assistance to historically underserved groups.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Removes the statutory category "socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers" from multiple USDA laws and bars USDA from giving race- or gender-based preferences across all 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 statutory references that treat "socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers" as a distinct category eligible for priorities, preferences, or defined program benefits across multiple USDA laws, and bars the Department of Agriculture from giving race- or gender-based preferences, priorities, or enhanced benefits in any program. The changes narrow or eliminate program eligibility language and priority preferences that previously referenced socially disadvantaged producers and make race- or gender-based preferential treatment explicitly prohibited for all USDA programs nationwide.