Last progress February 6, 2025 (10 months ago)
Introduced on February 6, 2025 by Brad Finstad
Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
This bill makes clear that the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) is the only independent regulator in charge of the Farm Credit System (FCS). It tells FCS lenders to ask small farmers who apply for or have loans to share their race, sex, and ethnicity, keep that data, and send it to the FCA each year. The FCA must publish the data each year without any personal details that could identify someone.
Sharing this information is voluntary. If a customer says no, lenders cannot guess based on looks or names. These requirements start one year after the law takes effect. If a separate federal small‑business lending data rule is struck down or repealed so that other financial institutions don’t have to follow it, FCS lenders would not have to follow these new reporting rules either. The bill also says FCA‑supervised entities do not have to follow certain Equal Credit Opportunity Act requirements related to small‑business data collection.