S1617

The LAST ACRE Act ('Linking Access to Spur Technology for Agriculture Connectivity in Rural Environments Act') was introduced in the Senate on May 6, 2025 by Sen. Fischer (R-NE) and Sen. Lujan (D-NM). It was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. A companion bill (HR3212) exists in the House. The bill amends the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to establish a 'Last Acre Program' — a new USDA grant and loan program for broadband and wireless connectivity projects on active agricultural land. Eligible projects explicitly include providing broadband to tractors, irrigation systems, drones, and supporting wireless infrastructure construction. CRITICAL: This is an authorization bill with ZERO appropriated dollars. The bill text establishes a program structure and eligibility criteria but does not specify any funding amount. Under the Congressional appropriations process, authorization creates the legal framework; separate appropriations legislation is required to allocate actual money. Until an appropriations bill passes with specific dollar amounts, this program has no funding. The bill is in its earliest legislative stage — single cosponsor, no committee markup, no House passage, no presidential action. The money trail: If this bill eventually becomes law AND receives appropriations, funds would flow from USDA to eligible entities (broadband providers, wireless equipment providers) for projects providing connectivity to 'covered producers' on unserved agricultural land. The mechanism is direct grants and loans for infrastructure buildout — not tax credits or direct procurement. The funded projects would in turn purchase equipment from tower owners ($CCI, for lease space; for precision ag connectivity). Real market data shows a clear divergence over the past 30 days: telecom carriers $T (-9%), $VZ (-4.6%), $TMUS (-5.8%) have been in a broad downtrend — these moves are driven by industry competition and interest rate dynamics, not by this bill. Tower REITs $CCI (+9%) and (+5.7%) have rallied, likely on rate-cut expectations and portfolio repositioning, not agricultural connectivity policy. (+4.2% over 30 days) has been stable to up. There is no evidence the market is pricing in any probability for this bill. Legislative timeline: The bill has completed exactly one action — referral to committee. The 119th Congress runs through 2027, so there is time for movement this session. However, with no markup scheduled, no cosponsor momentum (only 2 sponsors total), and no offset or funding mechanism specified, passage in the current Congress is unlikely. Any market-relevant catalysts would require (1) committee hearing/markup, (2) CBO scoring with cost estimate, (3) floor passage in either chamber, (4) passage in the other chamber, (5) presidential signature, and (6) a separate appropriations bill with actual dollars. This is a multi-year path at minimum.