S. 4848: Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach Grant Program Reauthorization Act of 2026

This bill would reauthorize and update a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant program that helps socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, veteran farmers and ranchers, and beginning farmers and ranchers get outreach, education, and technical assistance.

What the bill would change

• Extends the program’s authorization. It renews the funding period for the outreach and assistance program from 2019–2023 to 2027–2031, and updates related deadlines so the program continues operating into 2031.
• Expands language access. The bill explicitly allows grant recipients to provide interpretation and translation services when the Agriculture Department determines those services would improve meaningful access to USDA programs or technical assistance.
• Adjusts grant priorities. It updates the list of eligible entities that can receive grants so that, in addition to nongovernmental organizations, entities providing interpretation and translation services can also be prioritized when those services would improve access.
• Revises application requirements. Grant applicants would need to include plans for providing interpretation and translation services, where appropriate, as part of outreach and technical assistance efforts.

Reporting and transparency changes

The bill also adds a new reporting and data-collection requirement intended to improve transparency about how federal agriculture programs are used.

• Starting March 31, 2028, and then every 5 years, USDA would have to compile county- and state-level data on several farm program items, 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 and ranchers involved, with privacy protections.
• USDA would also have to organize the data by those demographic categories.
• The bill changes the reporting structure so some information would be provided in a separate report covering the new data collection requirement.

Overall effect

In practical terms, the bill would keep the existing outreach and assistance program going for another several years, make language access a more explicit part of the program, and require USDA to gather and report more detailed demographic and program-use data related to farm support programs.

Relevant Companies

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