Bacon Reintroduces Landmark Legislation to Strengthen America’s Agricultural Security and Support Beginning Farmers

Washington – Recently, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE-02) reintroduced two groundbreaking bills aimed at modernizing and securing America's agricultural sector. H.R. 4155, the American Agricultural Security Act will bolster cyber defenses for our nation's food supply chain, while H.R. 4156 the Support for Ownership and Investment in Land (SOIL) Act will remove barriers for the next generation of farmers seeking to establish their operations.

With the U.S. agri-food sector reporting forty cyberattack incidents in the first quarter of 2024 alone, the American Agricultural Security Act addresses an urgent national security concern. The legislation will establish Centers of Excellence at higher education institutions and create a competitive USDA grant program to strengthen our agricultural cybersecurity infrastructure.

“Our national security and our agricultural industry are inextricably linked,” said Rep. Bacon. “There are only nine meals between civilization and total anarchy. For this reason, I introduced the American Agricultural Security Act of 2024 to ensure we stay ahead of emerging threats to our food supply chain.”

While new technologies have enabled food production to become one of the most automated industries in the world, adversaries have increasingly looked to undermine our nation’s most vital industry through increased cyberattacks. The American Agricultural Security Act addresses these challenges by:

• Enabling the Secretary of Agriculture to establish Centers of Excellence at institutions of higher education to research and engage in extension on topics related to cybersecurity, biosecurity, and agricultural production.
• Establishing a competitive grant program within USDA to support research, extension, and education activities that improve the capability of the United States to protect the food and agricultural system from attack or other global catastrophic threats.

The full text of H.R. 4155 the American Agricultural Security Act can be found here.

The SOIL Act modernizes the farm loan process for America's next generation of agricultural leaders. The legislation allows the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to create a farm loan pre-approval process to allow farmers to make better decisions and not miss opportunities to expand their business operations, which will be especially useful for beginning farmers who often miss opportunities to expand their operations.

“The SOIL Act will finally open the door for beginning farmers and ranchers to obtain financing by allowing producers to be preapproved for FSA Loans,” said Rep. Bacon. “Far too often, beginning farmers and ranchers are unable to be competitive when purchasing land. Purchasing farmland is seasonal and there is no reason young producers should be forced to wait months on end before receiving permission to purchase land.” 

The full text of H.R. 4156 the SOIL Act can be found here.

Last Congress, both bills were successfully included in the Farm Bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee. Rep. Bacon looks forward to working with the Committee this Congress to advance these critical initiatives.

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