119-HR-5857 Journalist Public Summary
119 · HR 5857 FARM Act
A House bill introduced on October 28, 2025 would require farm equipment makers to provide owners and independent shops with the parts, tools, software, instructions, and machine data needed to fix modern equipment—on fair terms—while preserving safety, emissions compliance, and trade secrets. It is now in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Headline Summary
The FARM Act would guarantee farmers and local repair shops access to the tools, software, parts, and information needed to fix farm equipment, and task the FTC with enforcing fair access rules.
What It Does
- Requires manufacturers (OEMs) to make repair materials available—documentation, parts, software/firmware, diagnostic and programming tools—on “fair and reasonable” terms to equipment owners and independent repair providers. - Gives owners (and their chosen shops, with permission) access to their machine’s data needed for diagnosis and repair. - Stops practices that can block repairs, like mandatory online pairing or approval of parts/tools before they work, and allows temporarily disabling security features when that’s necessary to complete a legal repair. - Clarifies that bypassing digital locks for repair, interoperability, or security research is permitted under copyright law, and allows offering the tools needed to do so—when used for lawful repair. - Assigns the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to write rules and enforce them; keeps Clean Air Act and safety requirements intact. - Preserves limits: it doesn’t force disclosure of trade secrets beyond what’s needed to enable repair and does not allow illegal modifications or emissions tampering.
Who’s For It
- Bill sponsors: Rep. Marie Perez (D‑WA) and Rep. Joe Neguse (D‑CO).
- Supporters of right‑to‑repair policies generally argue the bill would cut downtime and costs for farmers, expand local repair options, and increase competition among service providers.
- Some technology and security researchers may back the clear legal permission to bypass digital locks for legitimate repair and security research, within safety and emissions rules.
Who’s Against It
- Equipment manufacturers and some dealer networks have opposed similar measures elsewhere, citing concerns about protecting proprietary software, cybersecurity, and liability if machines are modified unsafely.
- Environmental and safety critics of broad repair access sometimes worry about emissions tampering or disabling safety features; the bill attempts to address this by keeping Clean Air Act and safety compliance intact and banning illegal modifications.
What’s Next
Status as of October 29, 2025: H.R. 5857 was introduced on October 28, 2025 and referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Next steps typically include committee hearings and a possible markup. If approved, it would move to a House floor vote, then to the Senate, and finally to the President if it passes both chambers.
Discussion