§2003 Target Participation Rates

Summary

The Secretary must set annual target participation rates for each county so that members of socially disadvantaged groups can get loans under subchapter I and have chances to buy or lease inventory farmland. When making these county targets, the Secretary must look at how many people in the county are in those groups and how much inventory farmland is available. For gender, the targets must use the number of current and potential socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in the State compared to all farmers and ranchers in the State. The Secretary must, as much as possible, set aside and give out loan funds based on those proportions and the amount of inventory farmland, giving the most funds to counties with the highest share of disadvantaged group members and the most available farmland. In counties inside an Indian reservation, the funds must be allocated on a reservation-wide basis. For operating loans under subchapter II, the Secretary must set annual State target rates and reserve and allocate each State’s loan funds equal to that State’s target rate for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, then try to divide that money among counties by the number of socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers. Funds not used in a State may be used in other States to meet pending applications, and any leftovers must be reallocated within the State. The Secretary must report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees about the targets and how well they were met. A “socially disadvantaged group” means a group treated with racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice; a “socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher” is a member of such a group. The Secretary must make sure this is done in a way that follows the Supreme Court decision in Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Federico Pena, not later than 180 days after April 4, 1996.