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To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to modify limitations on access to farm ownership loans for beginning farmers and ranchers.
Summary
This bill modifies requirements for beginning farmers and ranchers to access federal farm ownership loans. It reduces the required farm management experience from three years to one year. The bill also allows the Secretary of Agriculture to waive the one-year requirement for qualified beginning farmers who have worked as hired farm labor with substantial management responsibilities or who have an established mentoring relationship with an experienced or retired farmer through formal mentorship programs. These changes aim to expand access to farm loans for new generations of farmers.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Finstad, Brad [R-MN-1] (R-MN)
1 cosponsor
- Rep. Riley, Josh [D-NY-19] (D-NY)
Actions (2)
- Jul 23, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. · house
- Jul 23, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 23, 2025
Mr. Finstad (for himself and Mr. Riley of New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to modify limitations on access to farm ownership loans for beginning farmers and ranchers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Next Generation Farmer Act”.
SEC. 2. EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS.
Section 302(b) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1922(b)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1), in the matter preceding subparagraph
(A), by striking “3 years” and inserting “1 year”; and
(2) by striking paragraph (4) and inserting the following:
“(4) Waiver authority.—In the case of a qualified beginning farmer or rancher, the Secretary may waive the 1-year requirement in paragraph (1) if the farmer or rancher has—
“(A) at least 1 year of experience as hired farm labor with substantial management responsibilities; or
“(B) an established relationship with an individual who has experience in farming or ranching, or is a retired farmer or rancher, and is participating as a counselor in a Service Corps of Retired Executives program authorized under section 8(b)(1)(B) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(b)(1)(B)), or with a local farm or ranch operator or organization, approved by the Secretary, that is committed to mentoring the farmer or rancher.”. <all>
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