Sponsors (4)
The bill seeks to modernize NASS to deliver faster, more useful agricultural data for farmers, policymakers, and researchers, at the trade-off of raising privacy and oversight concerns and imposing potential costs and reporting burdens on small producers.
Farmers and producers will receive more accurate and timely crop and acreage estimates through NASS modernization, improving market decisions and operational planning.
State and local policymakers and rural communities will get improved NASS data to better target programs, disaster responses, and regional planning.
Producers (especially those who respond to surveys) will face lower response burden and likely higher response rates as technology reduces reliance on more burdensome survey methods.
Producers face privacy and data-sharing risks because the use of real-time and environmental data could expose sensitive farm-level information if governance safeguards are insufficient.
Small farms and some producers could see increased reporting requirements or shifted data-collection burdens as recommendations are implemented, raising compliance costs and time burdens for them.
Waiving certain FACA provisions for the Commission reduces public oversight and transparency of deliberations, limiting accountability to the public.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates an 11-member commission to study and recommend modernization of NASS operations, data methods, survey burden, and implementation costs, with $1M authorized.
Introduced March 24, 2025 by Barry Moore · Last progress March 24, 2025
Creates an 11-member Commission on National Agricultural Statistics Service Modernization to study NASS operations and recommend ways to modernize and streamline its data collection and reporting. The commission will evaluate data quality, regional accounting, use of technology and real-time or environmental data, specialty crop statistics, options to reduce survey burden, and estimate implementation costs. The Secretary of Agriculture must provide office space and support; appointments are due within 60 days of enactment and the commission must report findings within two years. The commission terminates on September 30, 2030, and $1,000,000 is authorized for FY2026, available until expended.