Farm Credit Administration Independent Authority Act

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 If a separate federal small‑business lending data rule is struck down or repealed so that other financial institutions don’t have to follow it, FCS lenders would not have to follow these new reporting rules either.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.

• Who is affected: Farm Credit System lenders and their small farmer customers
• What changes: Lenders must request basic demographic info from small farmers, report it yearly to the FCA, and the FCA must publish non‑identifying data; customers can decline, and lenders can’t guess the info
• When: Applies to applications and loans starting one year after enactment; stops if the broader federal rule for other lenders is no longer in effect