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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5231 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 5231

To require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a pilot program to 
 implement a pre-qualification or pre-approval process for farmers and 
    ranchers with respect to a direct farm ownership loan under the 
  Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 25, 2024

   Mr. Welch (for himself, Mr. Hoeven, and Ms. Smith) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                  Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a pilot program to 
 implement a pre-qualification or pre-approval process for farmers and 
    ranchers with respect to a direct farm ownership loan under the 
  Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, 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 ``Farm Ownership Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. DIRECT FARM OWNERSHIP LOAN PILOT PROGRAM.

    Subtitle D of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act is 
amended by inserting after section 374 (7 U.S.C. 2008i) the following:

``SEC. 375. DIRECT FARM OWNERSHIP LOAN PILOT PROGRAM.

    ``(a) Establishment of Pilot Program.--Not later than 2 years after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a 5-
year pilot program (referred to in this section as the `pilot program') 
to implement a pre-qualification or pre-approval process for farmers 
and ranchers with respect to a direct farm ownership loan under 
subtitle A.
    ``(b) Borrower Viability and Repayment Assessment.--In carrying out 
section 360(b) with respect to a participant in the pilot program, the 
Secretary, as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, may make use 
of alternative methods, including financial benchmarking, to reliably 
evaluate the financial viability of the participant and the likelihood 
of repayment of the applicable loan.
    ``(c) Limitation.--This section shall not be interpreted to repeal 
any borrowing requirement imposed under subtitle A.
    ``(d) Outreach Priority.--In conducting outreach relating to the 
pilot program, the Secretary shall prioritize outreach to organizations 
that have demonstrated engagement with beginning farmers or ranchers.
    ``(e) Evaluation and Reports.--The Secretary shall--
            ``(1) evaluate the pilot program on an ongoing basis; and
            ``(2) annually submit to the Committee on Agriculture, 
        Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on 
        Agriculture of the House of Representatives a written report 
        that includes--
                    ``(A) a description of the performance outcomes of 
                the pilot program, including stakeholder and 
                participant evaluations, assessments, and participation 
                demographics, that includes the information described 
                in section 5413(b)(1)(A)(iv) of the Agriculture 
                Improvement Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 2008x(b)(1)(A)(iv)); 
                and
                    ``(B) a recommendation as to the value of the pilot 
                program, including whether to authorize a permanent 
                program modeled on the pilot program.''.
                                 <all>
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