New Farming Bill Mandates Total Transparency for Agricultural Checkoff Programs, Bans Lobbying for Large Boards

The Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act of 2025 is here to clean up how your food promotion money gets spent. This bill takes aim at the agricultural commodity checkoff programs—those industry-funded initiatives (like 'Beef, It's What's For Dinner' or 'Got Milk?')—by demanding radical transparency, banning conflicts of interest, and stopping the political use of these funds. Specifically, it bans Boards running programs with over $20 million in annual revenue from using assessment money to lobby or influence government policy, and it requires all Boards to publicly disclose every contract and expenditure within 30 days of approval.

The Checkoff Cleanup: No More Secret Slush Funds

If you’re a farmer or rancher, you pay into these checkoff programs, often through mandatory assessments on every bushel, head, or gallon you sell. The idea is that this money should promote your commodity generically, benefiting everyone who produces it. However, Congress found that these funds often get used for lobbying or policy advocacy, which benefits specific interests but not necessarily the average producer. This bill hits the brakes on that practice. If a checkoff Board manages more than $20 million (think big programs like beef or dairy), they absolutely cannot hire anyone to lobby or try to change agricultural policy (SEC. 4).

This is a big deal for accountability. Imagine you’re a small organic dairy farmer paying into the milk checkoff. You don't want your money funding political fights that might benefit massive corporate farms. This provision aims to ensure your mandatory contribution sticks to research and promotion, not politics. The only exception allows Boards to contract with universities for research or education, even if that work has policy implications, which is a potential loophole worth watching.

Banning Conflicts of Interest and Unfair Play

One of the sharpest tools in this bill is the crackdown on conflicts of interest (SEC. 3). If you sit on a checkoff Board—which is essentially managing millions of dollars of producer money—you can no longer have a financial stake, direct or indirect, in any business that contracts with that Board. This means the person approving the contract can’t be profiting from the contract, period. This provision is designed to stop the kind of self-dealing that has plagued some of these programs, ensuring that contracts are awarded based on merit, not connections.

Furthermore, the bill explicitly prohibits checkoff programs from engaging in anti-competitive behavior or making deceptive or disparaging statements about another agricultural product (SEC. 4). If you’re a pork producer, your checkoff dollars can’t be used to run an ad campaign trashing chicken. This levels the playing field and ensures that promotion is focused on the product itself, not on tearing down the competition.

Mandatory Audits and Public Books

For the rest of us—the consumers and taxpayers who benefit from a fair marketplace—the bill offers unprecedented visibility into how these funds are spent. Every single contract signed by a checkoff program must now require the contractor to provide detailed, quarterly records showing exactly how the money was spent. The Board must then make these records public within 30 days of receiving them (SEC. 4).

This isn't just about posting a summary; it's about detailed disclosure: how much was spent, what specific activities it funded, and who received the money directly. Think of it as a mandatory, public expense report for every dollar spent. To ensure compliance, the USDA Inspector General must audit every checkoff program within two years, and then every five years after that. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also gets to conduct its own audit to see if the programs actually cleaned up their act. This sets up a permanent, non-negotiable oversight structure designed to keep Boards honest and accountable to the producers who fund them.