Farm Subsidy Transparency Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1980 To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to track the distribution of all farm subsidies by race, gender, and size of the farm operation and to make that information about farm subsidies available to the public, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 8, 2021 Mr. BOOKER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry A BILL To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to track the distribu- tion of all farm subsidies by race, gender, and size of the farm operation and to make that information about farm subsidies available to the public, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Farm Subsidy Trans- 4 parency Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1980 IS SEC. 2. DATA ON RECIPIENTS OF BENEFITS UNDER AGRI- 1 CULTURE IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2018. 2 Subtitle G of title I of the Agriculture Improvement 3 Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–334; 132 Stat. 4525) is 4 amended by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘SEC. 1708. DATA ON RECIPIENTS OF BENEFITS. 6 ‘‘As soon as practicable after the date of enactment 7 of this section and notwithstanding any other provision of 8 law, the Secretary shall— 9 ‘‘(1) track— 10 ‘‘(A) the benefits provided, directly or indi- 11 rectly, to each individual and entity under this 12 title, title II, and title VII and the amendments 13 made by those titles, including— 14 ‘‘(i) the race and gender of each indi- 15 vidual directly or indirectly receiving the 16 benefits; 17 ‘‘(ii) the race and gender of each indi- 18 vidual receiving the benefits through an 19 entity and the race and gender of all indi- 20 viduals who comprise the entity; and 21 ‘‘(iii) the rented, owned, or controlled 22 acreage of the farm or ranch of each re- 23 cipient of the benefits; and 24 ‘‘(B) the race and gender of each indi- 25 vidual who applied for any benefits described in 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1980 IS subparagraph (A) and did not receive the bene- 1 fits; 2 ‘‘(2) annually make publicly available on the 3 website of the Department of Agriculture the infor- 4 mation tracked under paragraph (1); and 5 ‘‘(3) annually submit to the Committee on Agri- 6 culture of the House of Representatives and the 7 Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 8 of the Senate a report describing the information 9 tracked under paragraph (1).’’. 10 SEC. 3. DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN INFORMATION RELATING 11 TO INDIVIDUALS AND ENTITIES WITH FED- 12 ERAL CROP INSURANCE. 13 (a) AUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE.—Section 502(c) of 14 the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1502(c)) is 15 amended— 16 (1) by striking ‘‘paragraph (2)’’ and inserting 17 ‘‘paragraphs (2) and (5)’’; and 18 (2) by adding at the end the following: 19 ‘‘(5) DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN INFORMA- 20 TION.—The prohibition under paragraph (1) shall 21 not apply to the release of information under section 22 506(m)(4)(C).’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1980 IS (b) DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN INFORMATION.—Sec- 1 tion 506(m) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 2 1506(m)) is amended— 3 (1) by redesignating paragraph (4) as para- 4 graph (5); and 5 (2) by inserting after paragraph (3) the fol- 6 lowing: 7 ‘‘(4) COLLECTION AND RELEASE OF INFORMA- 8 TION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.— 9 ‘‘(A) DEFINITION OF COVERED ENTITY.— 10 In this paragraph, the term ‘covered entity’ 11 means— 12 ‘‘(i) an individual; and 13 ‘‘(ii)(I) an entity; and 14 ‘‘(II) each individual that partly or 15 wholly owns, or has a substantial beneficial 16 interest in, that entity. 17 ‘‘(B) INFORMATION COLLECTED.—The 18 Corporation shall, on an annual basis, collect 19 the following information: 20 ‘‘(i) The name, race, and gender, as 21 applicable, of each covered entity that di- 22 rectly or indirectly obtained a federally 23 subsidized crop insurance, livestock, or for- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1980 IS age policy or plan of insurance during the 1 previous reinsurance year. 2 ‘‘(ii) The rented, owned, or controlled 3 acreage of the farm or ranch attributable 4 to each covered entity described in clause 5 (i). 6 ‘‘(iii) The amount of premium subsidy 7 received from the Corporation, directly or 8 indirectly, by— 9 ‘‘(I) each covered entity described 10 in clause (i); and 11 ‘‘(II) in the case of a covered en- 12 tity described in subparagraph 13 (A)(ii)(I), each individual receiving 14 benefits through that entity and the 15 name, race, and gender of that indi- 16 vidual. 17 ‘‘(C) RELEASE OF INFORMATION.—Not- 18 withstanding any other provision of law, the 19 Corporation shall annually release to the public 20 the information described in subparagraph (B), 21 organized by covered entity and agricultural op- 22 eration.’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1980 IS SEC. 4. BENEFITS UNDER THE COMMODITY CREDIT COR- 1 PORATION CHARTER ACT. 2 Section 13 of the Commodity Credit Corporation 3 Charter Act (15 U.S.C. 714k) is amended— 4 (1) in the second sentence, by striking ‘‘In addi- 5 tion to the annual report’’ and inserting the fol- 6 lowing: 7 ‘‘(b) QUARTERLY REPORTS.—In addition to the an- 8 nual report under subsection (a)’’; 9 (2) in the matter preceding subsection (b) (as 10 so designated), by striking the section designation 11 and heading and all that follows through ‘‘The Cor- 12 poration’’ and inserting the following: 13 ‘‘SEC. 13. RECORDS; REPORTS. 14 ‘‘(a) RECORDS; ANNUAL REPORT.—The Corpora- 15 tion’’; and 16 (3) by adding at the end the following: 17 ‘‘(c) DATA ON RECIPIENTS OF BENEFITS.—The Sec- 18 retary shall— 19 ‘‘(1) track— 20 ‘‘(A) the benefits provided, directly or indi- 21 rectly, to each individual and entity under sec- 22 tion 5, including— 23 ‘‘(i) the race and gender of each indi- 24 vidual directly receiving the benefits or re- 25 ceiving the benefits through an entity; and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1980 IS ‘‘(ii) the rented, owned, or controlled 1 acreage of the farm or ranch of the recipi- 2 ent of the benefits; and 3 ‘‘(B) the race and gender of each indi- 4 vidual who applied for any benefits described in 5 subparagraph (A) and did not receive the bene- 6 fits; 7 ‘‘(2) annually make publicly available on the 8 website of the Department of Agriculture the infor- 9 mation tracked under paragraph (1); and 10 ‘‘(3) annually submit to the Committee on Agri- 11 culture of the House of Representatives and the 12 Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 13 of the Senate a report describing the information 14 tracked under paragraph (1).’’. 15 SEC. 5. FARM CREDIT TRANSPARENCY. 16 Section 704B of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act 17 (15 U.S.C. 1691c–2) is amended— 18 (1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘farm or 19 ranch,’’ after ‘‘minority-owned,’’; 20 (2) in subsection (b), by inserting ‘‘farm or 21 ranch,’’ after ‘‘minority-owned,’’ each place that 22 term appears; 23 (3) in subsection (e)— 24 (A) in paragraph (2)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 1980 IS (i) in subparagraph (E), by inserting 1 ‘‘farm or ranch,’’ after ‘‘minority-owned,’’; 2 and 3 (ii) in subparagraph (F), by inserting 4 ‘‘farm or ranch,’’ after ‘‘minority-owned,’’; 5 and 6 (B) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘farm 7 or ranch,’’ after ‘‘minority-owned,’’; and 8 (4) in subsection (g)(3), by inserting ‘‘farm or 9 ranch,’’ after ‘‘minority-owned,’’. 10 SEC. 6. SERVICE CENTER INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 11 SYSTEM. 12 The Secretary of Agriculture shall collect and track 13 the race and gender of any individual, or in the case of 14 an entity, each individual comprising the entity, that reg- 15 isters on the service center information management sys- 16 tem of the Department of Agriculture. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:43 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1980.IS S1980 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS