H.R. 10914: Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach Grant Program Reauthorization Act of 2026

This bill would extend and update a USDA grant and outreach program that helps socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, veteran farmers and ranchers, and beginning farmers and ranchers get assistance from federal agricultural programs.

What it changes

• Extends the program’s funding period by changing several references from the years 2019–2023 to 2027–2031, and from 2023 to 2031. In practical terms, this keeps the program authorized for a later five-year period.
• Allows outreach and technical assistance to include interpretation and translation services when the Secretary of Agriculture decides those services would help people better access USDA programs or help with technical assistance.
• Expands criteria for grant priorities so that, when USDA is choosing among eligible applicants, it can give priority not only to nongovernmental organizations but also to entities that will provide interpretation and translation services as part of outreach and technical assistance.
• Requires grant applications and plans to address language access by including plans for interpretation and translation services when those services would improve meaningful access to USDA programs or technical assistance.

Data collection and reporting changes

The bill also adds new transparency requirements for USDA reporting on programs serving socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers:

• Starting March 31, 2028, and then every five years, USDA must collect and organize data for each county and state in the country on several agriculture-related topics, including:
  • base acres of program crops owned by farmers or ranchers,
  • payment yields for program crops,
  • fee waivers and premium reductions under the noninsured crop disaster assistance program,
  • USDA-guaranteed loans,
  • Forest Service grazing permit allocations, and
  • the race, ethnicity, and gender of the farmers or ranchers involved, subject to privacy protections.
• USDA must present the data using National Agricultural Statistics Service systems and publish it in a way that shows:
  • nationwide totals,
  • state-by-state totals, and
  • county-by-county totals.
• The bill also requires this information to be reported in a separate report for the new five-year data collection requirement.

Overall effect

In plain terms, the bill would continue an existing USDA outreach and assistance program for certain farmers and ranchers, make it more accessible to people with limited English proficiency by supporting translation and interpretation, and require USDA to gather and publish more detailed demographic and geographic data about participation in related farm programs.

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