Tax credit for domestic farm inputs benefits big food makers, not small farmers
H.R. 1707 — Grown in America Act of 2025 · Filed by David Kustoff (R-TN) · 38 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 27, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new federal tax credit for businesses that use domestically-produced agricultural commodities as inputs to make food products. The credit is worth up to 25% of domestic agricultural input costs, capped at $100 million per taxpayer per year, but phases in over time—companies must source at least 50% of their agricultural inputs domestically in 2026, rising to 85% by 2034 to claim the full credit. Agricultural cooperatives can pass the credit to their member-patrons.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a refundable business tax credit tied to the use of domestically-sourced agricultural commodities in food production. It is a targeted tax incentive, not a subsidy or direct payment, and operates through the existing general business credit framework.
What the text implies
- The $100 million annual cap per taxpayer creates a hard ceiling that may benefit only the largest food manufacturers and agricultural processors, potentially excluding mid-sized and small businesses from meaningful credit access.
- The escalating domestic-sourcing threshold (50% in 2026 to 85% by 2034) may force businesses to restructure supply chains or absorb higher input costs if domestic alternatives are unavailable or more expensive, potentially raising consumer food prices despite the tax credit.
- The Secretary of Agriculture's power to designate 'domestically unavailable' commodities (excluded from the credit calculation) is discretionary and not subject to legislative override, creating regulatory uncertainty and potential for political manipulation of which crops qualify.
- Cooperative organizations can apportion the credit to member-patrons, potentially concentrating benefits among large agricultural cooperatives and their largest members rather than distributing broadly across small farmers.
- The credit's interaction with the general business credit and the special 10-year carryforward (vs. the standard 20-year) may create tax-planning opportunities for large corporations to offset other tax liabilities, reducing the credit's net cost to the Treasury but also its effectiveness in incentivizing domestic sourcing.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill may lower food prices for consumers if businesses pass through tax savings, and it supports domestic farmers by incentivizing domestic sourcing. However, the $100 million annual cap per taxpayer and the high domestic-sourcing thresholds (85% by 2034) may limit the credit's reach, and the benefit flows primarily to large food manufacturers and agricultural cooperatives rather than consumers or small farmers directly.
Who stands to gain
- large food manufacturers and processors
- agricultural cooperatives
- agricultural commodity producers (domestic)
- farm-raised fish producers
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Secretary of Agriculture, agricultural cooperatives, Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, Agricultural Act of 2014, section 199A, section 38 (general business credit)
Where it stands
38 cosponsors: 28 Republicans, 10 Democrats.
- Feb 27, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 27, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
14 lobbying clients named this bill on 20 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $5,102,409 in lobbying spend. A filing names 5 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 94% of bills with at least one filing.
David Kustoff, the sponsor, reported $1,066,250 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Food Marketplace Inc — $1,384,000 on 2 filings
- Anheuser-busch Companies — $1,330,000 on 1 filing
- Ebay Inc. — $580,000 on 1 filing
- National Council of Farmer Cooperatives — $548,000 on 2 filings
- American Farm Bureau Fed — $470,409 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (9,094 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Tax credit for domestic farm inputs benefits big food makers, not small farmers” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1707 Report an error
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