Farm Credit Administration Independent Authority Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Farm Credit Administration Independent Authority Act creates a Farm Credit Act small-farmer loan data collection system under FCA rather than CFPB small-business data rules. Farm Credit System institutions must request voluntary race, sex, and ethnicity information from small farmer applicants and borrowers, collect and maintain the data, and report annually to FCA. FCA must publish the information annually and cannot require institutions to contradict customers who do not want to report. The bill also excludes FCA-supervised entities from Equal Credit Opportunity Act section 704B and stops compliance if the broader CFPB rule is invalidated or repealed.
Who Benefits and How
Farm Credit System institutions benefit because FCA remains their sole independent regulator for this small-farmer loan data collection. Small farmers benefit if public demographic lending data exposes gaps in Farm Credit access. Farm Credit Administration staff benefit from direct control over data rules for institutions they supervise. Agricultural civil rights researchers benefit from annual public data on race, sex, and ethnicity in small-farmer lending.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Farm Credit System lenders must request, collect, maintain, and annually report demographic information from small farmer applicants and borrowers. Farm Credit Administration must write regulations, collect reports, and publish data annually. Small farmer applicants may face sensitive demographic questions even though reporting is voluntary. CFPB small-business data regulators lose coverage over FCA-supervised institutions for section 704B purposes.
Key Provisions
- Requires Farm Credit System institutions to request voluntary race, sex, and ethnicity information from small farmer applicants and borrowers.
- Requires annual reporting to FCA and annual public release of collected data.
- Amends ECOA section 704B to exclude FCA-supervised entities.
- Provides that Farm Credit institutions stop complying if the broader subpart B rule is invalidated or repealed.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Affirms the Farm Credit Administration as sole independent regulator of the Farm Credit System and creates small-farmer race, sex, and ethnicity loan data collection through FCA-supervised institutions.
Key Policy Areas
Agriculture, Financial Regulation, Civil Rights Data
Primary Purpose
Affirms the Farm Credit Administration as sole independent regulator of the Farm Credit System and creates small-farmer race, sex, and ethnicity loan data collection through FCA-supervised institutions.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Farm Credit System institutions
- Small farmers
- Farm Credit Administration staff
- Agricultural civil rights researchers
Identified Costs
- Farm Credit System lenders
- Farm Credit Administration
- Small farmer applicants
- CFPB small-business data regulators
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, …
Mr. Finstad (for himself, Mr. Panetta, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, …
Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Small farmer applicants, Small farmers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology