After pressure from the tractor lobby, West Virginia lawmakers scrapped key parts of a bill that would establish a farmer’s right to work on their own equipment.
As originally written, SB 306 would have required manufacturers of farm, forestry and lawn equipment to make parts and tools available for owners and independent repair shops to fix equipment themselves.
Over the last decade, state legislatures across the country have taken up “right to repair” bills in response to the controls placed on farm equipment by manufacturers.
Much like today’s passenger vehicles, tractors, thrashers and combines have many computer controls. According to a class action lawsuit filed by farmers against John Deere, there are over 100 sensors that control the operation of a modern tractor and if any one of those are triggered, the tractor will not work.
Instead, a technician has to use the official John Deere programming to reset the tractor in order to get it to turn on. The company tried to get the lawsuit thrown out, but a judge overruled them and the case is ongoing.
This year’s “right to repair” bill isn’t the first the Legislature has seen — last year, a similar bill passed the Senate, but died in the House.
During a January committee meeting to consider this year’s bill, Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, raised concerns that the bill would force original equipment manufacturers to sell parts and programming at an unprofitable price.
Phil Reale, a lobbyist representing John Deere, told lawmakers it would be unreasonable for manufacturers to sell parts without a markup to the public or independent repair shops.
“Can’t do it,” he said with a shrug.
The committee sent the bill to the floor but it was quickly parked in the Senate Rules Committee, a powerful but little-known body that decides which bills are run.
Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, who serves on that committee, said there were disagreements among lawmakers about how involved the government should be in the issue.
The bill was sent back to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. On Monday, the committee substantially changed the bill and removed language that Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, the legislation’s lead sponsor, said the manufacturers had raised concerns about.
“After I talked to them, and then spoke with a couple other senators, we took the language out, because they kept telling us you’re gonna make us sell our parts at cost,” he said. “And I said, ‘that’s not what it does’. But after I got to thinking about it, the competition is going to take care of that.”
Lawn and garden equipment, which were covered under the original bill, were also taken out after Hamilton said small equipment dealers “raised a fuss about it.”
Then forestry equipment was stripped out by an amendment from Karnes. He later said in an interview that unlike agriculture equipment, where a breakdown could result in a loss of crops, logging operations don’t have similar time crunches.
The current version of the bill was advanced by the agriculture committee but has yet to hit the floor. Hamilton said lawmakers may send it to the Finance Committee.
He said he’s hopeful that what remains will be able to be passed and still help farmers by requiring manufacturers to supply parts, programming and other key materials once a piece of equipment is no longer under warranty.
The West Virginia Farm Bureau, the state’s largest agricultural lobbying group, declined to comment on the bill. On its website, the organization states it is in opposition because its national body has multiple signed agreements with the large equipment manufacturers.
Under the agreements, the manufacturers agree to make the programming and necessary tools available to farmers and independent repair shops. In return, the farm bureaus across the country agreed to not push any “right to repair” legislation.