Farm Credit Administration Independent Authority Act

This bill specifies that the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) is the sole regulator of the Farm Credit System (FCS) and establishes reporting requirements for FCS institutions (i.e., lenders).

Specifically, the bill states that the FCA is the sole and independent regulator of the FCS and exempts entities that are supervised by the FCA from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).

As background, the bill addresses a rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that implements provisions of the ECOA by requiring covered financial institutions, including FCS institutions, to collect and report to the CFPB data on credit applications for small businesses, including the principal owner's race, sex, and ethnicity. This 2023 rule has been challenged in court.

The bill also requires FCS institutions to (1) request that loan applicants and borrowers that are small farmers disclose information identifying their race, sex, and ethnicity; and (2) annually report the collected information to the FCA. The FCA must make the collected information available to the public on annual basis. If an FCS institution customer does not voluntarily report the requested information, the FCA may not require the institution to use other means to deduce the information.

In addition, the bill specifies that FCS institutions shall not be required to comply with the bill's requirements if financial institutions are not required to comply with the CFPB rule due to a court invalidating the rule or a repeal of the rule.

House	03/07/2025	Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit.
House	02/06/2025	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.
House	02/06/2025	Introduced in House

Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1063 Action History