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To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to expand eligibility for direct loans to individuals or entity members that hold at least a 50 percent interest and that are or will become bona fide operators of the farm real estate acquired, improved, or supported with farm ownership, operating, or emergency loans, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends federal law governing USDA farm loans to expand eligibility for direct loans used to acquire or improve farm property and for operating and emergency loans. The bill lowers the required ownership threshold from a majority to at least 50 percent for individuals or entities that operate the farm. It also creates new eligibility pathways for operating companies owned by farm owners and for nested business structures, provided that qualified farm operators ultimately own at least 75 percent of the entity. The bill authorizes the USDA Secretary to define what qualifies as a "qualified operator," whose applications would automatically meet the operator requirement. These changes modernize eligibility requirements to accommodate various farm business structures currently used in agriculture.
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. Bost, Mike [R-IL-12] (R-IL)
3 cosponsors
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Mike Bost’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $208,683
- NOTS LOGISTICS $19,700
- DONOHO INSURANCE AGENCY $18,700
- VETERANS UNITED $15,000
- AASI $13,200
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Mike Bost → · Outside spending →
Actions (3)
- May 20, 2026 Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit. · house
- Dec 17, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. · house
- Dec 17, 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.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 17, 2025
Mr. Bost (for himself, Ms. Budzinski, and Mr. Rose) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to expand eligibility for direct loans to individuals or entity members that hold at least a 50 percent interest and that are or will become bona fide operators of the farm real estate acquired, improved, or supported with farm ownership, operating, or emergency loans, and for other purposes.
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 “USDA Loan Modernization Act”.
SEC. 2. PERSONS ELIGIBLE FOR REAL ESTATE LOANS.
Section 302(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1922(a)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1)—
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking “a majority” and inserting “at least a 50 percent”; and
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking “a majority” and inserting “at least a 50 percent”; and
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking subparagraphs (A) and (B) and inserting the following:
“(A) Eligibility of qualified operators.— Qualified operators, as defined by the Secretary, shall be considered to meet the operator requirement of paragraph (1).
“(B) Eligibility of certain operating-only entities.—An applicant that is or will become only the operator of farm real estate acquired, improved, or supported with funds under this subtitle shall be considered to meet the owner-operator requirements of paragraph (1) if 1 or more of the individuals who is an owner of the farm real estate owns at least 50 percent (or such other percentage as the Secretary determines is appropriate) of the applicant.
“(C) Eligibility of certain embedded entities.—An entity that is an owner-operator described in paragraph
(1), or an operator described in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph that is owned, in whole or in part, by 1 or more other entities, shall be considered to meet the direct ownership requirement imposed under paragraph
(1) if at least 75 percent of the total ownership interests of the embedded entity, or of the other entities, is owned, directly or indirectly, by qualified operators of the farm acquired, improved, or supported with funds under this subtitle.”.
SEC. 3. PERSONS ELIGIBLE FOR OPERATING LOANS.
Section 311(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1941) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1)—
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking “a majority” and inserting “at least a 50 percent”; and
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking “a majority” and inserting “at least a 50 percent”; and
(2) by amending paragraph (2) to read as follows:
“(2) Special rules.—
“(A) Eligibility of qualified operators.— Qualified operators, as defined by the Secretary, shall be considered to meet the operator requirement of paragraph (1).
“(B) Eligibility of certain operating-only entities.—An entity that is an operator described in paragraph (1) that is owned, in whole or in part, by other entities, shall be considered to meet the direct ownership requirement imposed under paragraph (1) if at least 75 percent of the total ownership interests of the embedded entity, or of the other entities, is owned, directly or indirectly, by qualified operators of the farm improved or supported with funds under this subtitle.”.
SEC. 4. PERSONS ELIGIBLE FOR EMERGENCY LOANS.
Section 321 of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1961) is amended—
(1) by striking all that precedes “shall make and insure” and inserting the following:
“SEC. 321. ELIGIBILITY FOR LOANS.
“(a) In General.—
“(1) Eligibility requirements.—The Secretary”; and
(2) in subsection (a)—
(A) in the 1st sentence—
(i) by striking “(1)” and inserting
“(A)”;
(ii) by striking “(2)” and inserting
“(B)”;
(iii) by striking “(A)” the 1st place it appears and inserting “(i)”;
(iv) by striking “(B)” the 1st place it appears and inserting “(ii)”; and
(v) by striking “a majority” each place it appears and inserting “at least a 50 percent”;
(B) by striking the 5th sentence; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
“(2) Special rules.—
“(A) Eligibility of qualified operators.— Qualified operators, as defined by the Secretary, shall be considered to meet the operator requirement of paragraph (1).
“(B) Eligibility of certain operating-only entities.—An applicant that is or will become only the operator of farm real estate acquired, improved, or supported with funds under this subtitle shall be considered to meet the owner-operator requirements of paragraph (1) if 1 or more of the individuals who is an owner of the real estate owns at least 50 percent (or such other percentage as the Secretary determines is appropriate) of the applicant.
“(C) Eligibility of certain embedded entities.—An entity that is an owner-operator described in paragraph
(1), or an operator described in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph that is owned, in whole or in part, by 1 or more other entities, shall be considered to meet the direct ownership requirement imposed under paragraph
(1) if at least 75 percent of the total ownership interests of the embedded entity, or of the other entities, is owned, directly or indirectly, by qualified operators of the farm acquired, improved, or supported with funds under this subtitle.”. <all>
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