Sponsors (2)
The bill expands financing, technical assistance, conservation support, and tribal protections to help beginning and disadvantaged farmers access and steward land, but it increases federal spending and creates eligibility, administrative, and timing constraints that could limit who benefits and how projects are executed.
Beginning farmers, ranchers, and forest owners gain expanded access to grants, loans, down-payment assistance, and technical help, and eligible local intermediaries (CDFIs, nonprofits, cooperatives, universities, Farm Credit institutions) can deploy revolving funds and capitalization loans to sustain long-term local financing.
Rural communities and farmers receive support for land remediation, infrastructure, and conservation practices that can improve land productivity and environmental outcomes.
Tribal governments and tribal citizens receive priority protections (including right-of-first-refusal) and funded Tribal consultation, strengthening tribal land access and sovereignty.
Taxpayers may face increased federal spending because funding is authorized as "such sums as are necessary," creating an open-ended appropriation risk.
Some family-incorporated, investor-backed, multi-owner, or foreign-owned farm entities may be excluded by ownership and entity-type eligibility limits, restricting who can access the program's financing.
Nonprofits, community organizations, and tribal governments may face additional administrative burdens from application, reporting, and evaluation requirements needed to access funds.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Establishes definitions and eligibility rules for a program supporting small, owner-operated farm and forest producers and lists eligible implementing partners.
Introduced April 1, 2025 by Tina Smith · Last progress April 1, 2025
Establishes the foundational definitions and eligibility rules for a New Producer Economic Security Program that would support small, owner-operated agricultural and forest producers. It specifies what counts as an authorized legal entity, what types of organizations may serve as program partners or implementers, and broadly defines eligible land and covered projects to guide future program actions. The text limits direct beneficiary businesses to legally organized entities with no more than 25 individual owners who are natural persons and who materially participate in management or physical production, and it lists eligible intermediary organizations (tribes, nonprofits, certified CDFIs, certain financial institutions, colleges, cooperatives, and governments) that can carry out the program, excluding foreign-owned corporations. Funding, specific benefits, and detailed project rules are not included here.