Sponsors
The bill targets increased, more transparent support for new and underserved farmers' markets and clarifies multi‑year authorizations, but it also introduces matching requirements and contains drafting errors and allocation rules that could reduce participation, shift funds away from established grantees, or create funding uncertainty if not fixed.
Small and first-time farmers, market operators, and rural small businesses will have increased access to federal grants because the bill reserves 30% of funds for entities that haven't received funding in the prior 3 years.
Small or cash‑strained applicants (including new market organizers) face lower financial barriers for qualifying priority grants because certain priority awards are exempted from the new 25% matching requirement.
Rural communities and local governments gain clearer multi‑year funding authorizations (FY2019–2026 and a specified $50M annual level beginning FY2027), which can improve planning and program continuity.
All potential applicants — especially small, cash‑strapped farmers and market organizers — could be discouraged from applying because the bill imposes a new 25% matching‑funds requirement for some grants.
Program administrators, applicants, and recipients face legal and funding uncertainty because a malformed numeric insertion (replacing $50M with invalid text) risks ambiguity or gaps in authorized funding if it is not corrected.
Existing grantees and other competitive applicants may receive fewer available funds in a given year because reserving 30% for first‑time/priority recipients reduces the pool of funds available to established programs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds a 25% match requirement for most grants, reserves 30% of funds for new farmers’ markets, and mandates two public reports on program awards and integrity.
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Lauren Underwood · Last progress December 17, 2025
Changes rules for the Local Agriculture Market Program so most grant recipients must provide matching funds equal to 25% of the federal grant, reserves part of annual program funds for creating new farmers’ markets that haven’t recently received grants, and requires two public reports about program applications, awards, fraud/abuse, and the effect of the matching change. Also establishes a short title for the law.