Small Agriculture Producer Size Standards Improvements Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his support of this legislation to update and modernize the agricultural producers' small business size standards.

President Eisenhower once said: Farming looks mighty easy if your plow is a pencil and the closest cornfield is a thousand miles away. Unfortunately, this quote is accurate when describing the statutorily established size standards for agriculture producers.

Agricultural production is an important contributor to the American economy. According to the USDA, the total value of farm production exceeds $390 billion, and the agricultural industry supports 16 million domestic jobs. Farmers and ranchers provide the food, fiber, and fuel that are critical to our daily lives.

Family-owned farms still account for the majority of farms and ranches in the United States. However, the advance of new technology has created increased productivity, leading to lower prices for many commodities. This downward pressure on prices is expected to increase, and newer technology will be adopted. As margins continue to thin, more and more single-owned family operations will consolidate into somewhat larger, multifamily-owned operations, but these are still small businesses.

Unfortunately, the current small business size standard for agriculture has been set in statute and is outdated. The standard is too low for a vast majority of farms and ranches to participate in potential government contracts and subcontracting opportunities.

Also, the SBA size standards are often used for Federal agencies to determine their obligations under the Regulatory Flexibility Act. This law helps ensure that the Federal agency establishes the potential impacts of proposed regulations on small businesses. It also informs the consideration of less burdensome regulatory alternatives.

Unfortunately, the statutory standard has no rational basis. It appears that the number was just grabbed out of the air by a previous Congress. As a result, small business agriculture producers do not enjoy the potential benefit of small business classifications.

In the 30 years since the enactment of the statutory size standard, the Small Business Administration has specifically improved its process for determining small business size standards. This should address whatever issue previous Congresses had when it established these size standards.

Now, I believe it is important that the Congress and the Federal agencies promote consistency in policymaking. My legislation will help ensure that consistency.

I do want to thank the ranking member and the chairman for their support of this bill, and I appreciate the help and support that they have given.

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