Farmer outreach grants would favor groups offering useful translation

Outreach and technical help could include interpreters and translations, and grant rules would favor eligible groups offering them. The outreach and assistance section concerns socially disadvantaged, veteran, and beginning farmers and ranchers. The Agriculture Secretary must find that the language help would be useful for expanding access to department programs or technical help.

The Agriculture Secretary would gather data, group it by race, ethnicity, and gender, and present national, state, and county figures in reports. The data would cover crop program records, aid and loans, and grazing permits for farmers and ranchers in every state and county. The Secretary would set appropriate privacy protections for data on race, ethnicity, and gender. The Secretary would compile the state and county data by March 31, 2028, and every five years after that.

The bill would put 2027 through 2031 in two parts of the farmer outreach and assistance law and 2031 in a third. These dates appear in the section on outreach and assistance for socially disadvantaged, veteran, and beginning farmers and ranchers.