Review – S 3068 Introduced – AG Right-to-Repair

Sen Welch (D,VT) introduced S 3068, the Freedom for Agricultural Repair and Maintenance (FARM) Act. The bill would require covered original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to make available any documentation, part, software, firmware, or tool intended for use in order to diagnose, maintain, upgrade, reprogram, or repair farm equipment. It would also require OEM to make available to owners any farm equipment data generated by the farm equipment of the owner. No new funding is authorized by this bill.

The bill is very similar to HR 5604, the Agricultural Right to Repair Act, introduced by Rep Perez (D,WA) in September 2023. No action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress. Most of the differences between the two bills are editorial. The major changes in S 3068 include:

Removing the definition of the ‘embedded software’,

Adding the definition of ‘maintenance’, and

Adding additional enforcement authority for the FTC.

Moving Forward

While Welch is not a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, one of his two cosponsors, Sen Fetterman (D,OH) is a member. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I suspect, however, that there will be substantial opposition to this bill among the Republican members of the Committee, so the bill will not likely be taken up by the Committee.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-3068-introduced-ag-right-to-repair - subscription required.