H.R. 7851House119th Congress (2025-2027)In Committee

Checkoff Transparency Act

AI-Generated Summary

Updated March 22, 2026 at 5:41 AM UTC

The Checkoff Transparency Act amends the 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act to make information about commodity promotion programs (often called checkoff programs) publicly available. It directs the Secretary of Agriculture to post audit reports, budget and activity details, and independent evaluation results for each commodity board on the USDA website. The rule applies to all commodity boards that operate under federal promotion orders, affecting producers, marketers, and the public who want insight into how checkoff funds are used.

Key Provisions

Requires the USDA Secretary to post on the department’s website, for each commodity promotion order, the audit reports submitted by the commodity board, the board’s approved activities and budgets, and the results of any independent evaluations.
Mandates that within 180 days of the law taking effect, the Secretary must publish this information for the five most recent fiscal years, and thereafter publish each year’s information within 365 days after that fiscal year ends.
Amends the 1996 Farm Bill’s section numbering to insert the new transparency requirement (re‑designating existing subsections).

Legislative Activity

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1 earlier action

HouseIntro Referral Latest Action

Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.

Agriculture Committee

March 5, 2026

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HouseIntro Referral

Introduced in House

March 5, 2026

HouseIntro Referral

Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.

Agriculture Committee

March 5, 2026

Bill Text

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Introduced in HouseIssued March 5, 2026

119th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 7851

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 5, 2026

Mrs. Spartz introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

A BILL

To amend the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to publish information related to orders under commodity promotion laws.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Checkoff Transparency Act.

Transparency of records of commodity boards

Section 501 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7401) is amended—

(1)

by redesignating subsections (d) through (f) as subsections (e) through (g);

(2)

by inserting after subsection (c) the following:

(d)

Transparency of records of commodity boards

(1)

In general

For each order issued by the Secretary under a commodity promotion law, the Secretary shall publish on the website of the Department of Agriculture the following information:

(A)

The reports of audits submitted by each commodity board to the Secretary for each fiscal year pursuant to section 515(g)(2).

(B)

The activities and budgets of each commodity board approved by the Secretary for each fiscal year.

(C)

The results of each periodic independent evaluation described in subsection (c).

(2)

Publication timeline

In carrying out paragraph (1), the Secretary shall—

(A)

not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, publish the information described in such paragraph with respect to the 5 full fiscal years preceding such date of enactment; and

(B)

not later than 365 days after the end of any subsequent fiscal year, publish the information described in such paragraph with respect to such fiscal year.

; and

(3)

in subsection (f)(4) (as so redesignated), by striking subsection (f) and inserting subsection (g).