Farm Credit Administration Independent Authority Act

New loan data rules for small farmers

If enacted, Farm Credit System lenders would ask small-farmer loan applicants to voluntarily share their race, sex, and ethnicity. Lenders would keep this data and report it to the Farm Credit Administration each year. The FCA would publish only aggregated, non-identifying results each year, and could not require guessing by look or surname. This would apply to applications and loans one year or more after the date of enactment. The bill would also remove FCA-supervised lenders from a related Equal Credit Opportunity Act provision. If that related federal rule for other lenders is overturned or repealed, Farm Credit lenders would not have to follow these new rules; those two changes would take effect upon enactment.