Ensuring Accountability for Equity at USDA Act

Ensuring Accountability for Equity at USDA Act

This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve the equitable availability and distribution of USDA services and program benefits through specific actions.

Under the bill, USDA must

• include within the performance evaluations for USDA senior leadership a review of an individual's direct efforts to improve equity in USDA programs and services;
• issue uniform, department-wide guidance on collecting and responding to feedback and using that feedback to improve efforts to provide more equitable and consistent services; and
• build frontline USDA customer service staff capacity to make eligible services or benefits available to customers.

USDA must also notify Congress when it has identified an opportunity to improve equity in a particular program or service, but lacks the authority to make the necessary changes.

Further, the bill requires additional information to be included in USDA's annual data report (which is meant to assess and hold USDA accountable for the nondiscriminatory participation of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in USDA programs). The report must also describe trends in the data and include a discussion of efforts to implement necessary improvements to equity.

In addition, USDA must use collected data to examine and assess USDA programs and policies to identify and understand communities, organizations, groups, and individuals in need of USDA services or benefits.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov