Last night (Thursday March 9) The Colorado Senate voted 4-3 to move Agricultural Right to Repair HB23-1011 ahead to the Senate Floor. The House has already moved the bill by a vote of 44-17. Participants in Thursday's hearing in the Colorado Senate AG and Natural Resources Committee heard a rare, lengthy (7 hours !! ) and wide ranging discussion about the merits and pitfalls of HB12-1011. It was by far the most diligent and useful of hearings in our 10 years of experience. The Senate Chair himself explained that he went back and forth at least ten times between Yea and Nea before deciding to cast the deciding Yea vote.

One of the key issues was the recent announcement of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) between the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and John Deere, and Case-IH. Advocates noted that the timing of the MOU was clearly intended to forestall this legislation from moving. Opponents argued that the MOUs would provide farmers with all the information and parts necessary for consumer-directed repair so legislation was unnecessary. A couple of Senators advanced the argument that government shouldn’t be involved in these private matters. All these positions were discussed at length.

During the hearing questions were raised about if the MOUs are actually comprehensive and if the MOU format is a viable alternative to legislation. AFBF (American Farm Bureau Federation – a signatory to the MOU) revealed that John Deere does not sell 100% of the materials necessary for complete repair, and the Customer Service Advisor tool only covers 97% of repairs that a farmer might need to make. This matters enormously as Deere had stated in testimony in Montana in 2021 that the 2% (or 3%) are the high tech stuff dealers claimed as “off limits” for owner repair. In the world of increasingly high-tech problems such repairs are the problems that vex farmers the most.

The argument was ultimately made that since equipment manufacturers had agreed to provide "everything" needed for consumer-directed repair they would not be harmed by being subject to a statute. The hearing effectively called John Deere's bluff and demonstrated that MOUs were not enough to address the issue of Right to Repair. It was a very big step forward for all of us.