This bill restricts how agricultural checkoff programs—federally funded commodity promotion boards for products like beef, dairy, pork, and wheat—can spend their money. Specifically, it prohibits large checkoff programs (those collecting over $20 million annually) from contracting with organizations that lobby to influence agricultural policy, prevents board members from having financial conflicts of interest, and bars boards from engaging in anticompetitive practices or disparaging competing agricultural products. The legislation requires checkoff programs to publish detailed quarterly records of all spending, budgets, and payments to contractors within 30 days, making their finances transparent to the public. The Agriculture Department's Inspector General must audit compliance every five years starting within two years of enactment, and the Comptroller General will conduct a comprehensive review within three to five years. The bill affects producers and farmers who pay into these checkoff programs and aims to ensure the programs benefit all producers equally rather than special interests.
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