| 1 | 1 | | II |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION S. 910 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a pilot program to |
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| 6 | 6 | | implement a pre-qualification or pre-approval process for farmers and |
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| 7 | 7 | | ranchers with respect to a direct farm ownership loan under the Consoli- |
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| 8 | 8 | | dated Farm and Rural Development Act, and for other purposes. |
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| 9 | 9 | | IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES |
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| 10 | 10 | | MARCH10, 2025 |
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| 11 | 11 | | Mr. W |
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| 12 | 12 | | ELCH(for himself, Mr. HOEVEN, and Ms. SMITH) introduced the fol- |
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| 13 | 13 | | lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agri- |
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| 14 | 14 | | culture, Nutrition, and Forestry |
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| 15 | 15 | | A BILL |
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| 16 | 16 | | To require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a pilot |
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| 17 | 17 | | program to implement a pre-qualification or pre-approval |
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| 18 | 18 | | process for farmers and ranchers with respect to a direct |
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| 19 | 19 | | farm ownership loan under the Consolidated Farm and |
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| 20 | 20 | | Rural Development Act, and for other purposes. |
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| 21 | 21 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 22 | 22 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 23 | 23 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 24 | 24 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Farm Ownership Im-4 |
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| 25 | 25 | | provement Act’’. 5 |
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| 27 | 27 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 |
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| 28 | 28 | | •S 910 IS |
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| 29 | 29 | | SEC. 2. DIRECT FARM OWNERSHIP LOAN PILOT PROGRAM. 1 |
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| 30 | 30 | | Subtitle D of the Consolidated Farm and Rural De-2 |
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| 31 | 31 | | velopment Act is amended by inserting after section 374 3 |
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| 32 | 32 | | (7 U.S.C. 2008i) the following: 4 |
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| 33 | 33 | | ‘‘SEC. 375. DIRECT FARM OWNERSHIP LOAN PILOT PRO-5 |
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| 34 | 34 | | GRAM. 6 |
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| 35 | 35 | | ‘‘(a) E |
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| 36 | 36 | | STABLISHMENT OF PILOTPROGRAM.—Not 7 |
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| 37 | 37 | | later than 2 years after the date of enactment of the Farm 8 |
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| 38 | 38 | | Ownership Improvement Act, the Secretary shall establish 9 |
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| 39 | 39 | | a 5-year pilot program (referred to in this section as the 10 |
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| 40 | 40 | | ‘pilot program’) to implement a pre-qualification or pre- 11 |
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| 41 | 41 | | approval process for farmers and ranchers with respect to 12 |
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| 42 | 42 | | a direct farm ownership loan under subtitle A. 13 |
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| 43 | 43 | | ‘‘(b) B |
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| 44 | 44 | | ORROWERVIABILITY ANDREPAYMENTAS-14 |
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| 45 | 45 | | SESSMENT.—In carrying out section 360(b) with respect 15 |
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| 46 | 46 | | to a participant in the pilot program, the Secretary, as 16 |
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| 47 | 47 | | the Secretary determines to be appropriate, may make use 17 |
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| 48 | 48 | | of alternative methods, including financial benchmarking, 18 |
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| 49 | 49 | | to reliably evaluate the financial viability of the participant 19 |
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| 50 | 50 | | and the likelihood of repayment of the applicable loan. 20 |
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| 51 | 51 | | ‘‘(c) L |
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| 52 | 52 | | IMITATION.—This section shall not be inter-21 |
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| 53 | 53 | | preted to repeal any borrowing requirement imposed under 22 |
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| 54 | 54 | | subtitle A. 23 |
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| 55 | 55 | | ‘‘(d) O |
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| 56 | 56 | | UTREACHPRIORITY.—In conducting outreach 24 |
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| 57 | 57 | | relating to the pilot program, the Secretary shall prioritize 25 |
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| 60 | 60 | | •S 910 IS |
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| 61 | 61 | | outreach to organizations that have demonstrated engage-1 |
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| 62 | 62 | | ment with beginning farmers or ranchers. 2 |
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| 63 | 63 | | ‘‘(e) E |
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| 64 | 64 | | VALUATION AND REPORTS.—The Secretary 3 |
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| 65 | 65 | | shall— 4 |
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| 66 | 66 | | ‘‘(1) evaluate the pilot program on an ongoing 5 |
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| 67 | 67 | | basis; and 6 |
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| 68 | 68 | | ‘‘(2) annually submit to the Committee on Agri-7 |
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| 69 | 69 | | culture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and 8 |
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| 70 | 70 | | the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Rep-9 |
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| 71 | 71 | | resentatives a written report that includes— 10 |
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| 72 | 72 | | ‘‘(A) a description of the performance out-11 |
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| 73 | 73 | | comes of the pilot program, including stake-12 |
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| 74 | 74 | | holder and participant evaluations, assessments, 13 |
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| 75 | 75 | | and participation demographics, that includes 14 |
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| 76 | 76 | | the information described in section 15 |
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| 77 | 77 | | 5413(b)(1)(A)(iv) of the Agriculture Improve-16 |
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| 78 | 78 | | ment Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 17 |
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| 79 | 79 | | 2008x(b)(1)(A)(iv)); and 18 |
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| 80 | 80 | | ‘‘(B) a recommendation as to the value of 19 |
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| 81 | 81 | | the pilot program, including whether to author-20 |
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| 82 | 82 | | ize a permanent program modeled on the pilot 21 |
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| 83 | 83 | | program.’’. 22 |
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| 84 | 84 | | Æ |
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