Hovis's 'right to repair' bill gets a committee hearing next week

Missouri state Rep. Barry Hovis of Whitewater (R-146), who took office in the state General Assembly in 2019, will see his "Right to Repair" legislation, House Bill 2402, get a hearing Tuesday before the House Agriculture Policy Committee. It's Hovis's second attempt to get such a measure through the legislature. A previous try in 2020 never emerged from committee.

A trade group, Associated Industries of Missouri, opposed Hovis's first bill, calling it "damaging to manufactures and consumers."

Hovis, a retired City of Cape Girardeau police officer, said Thursday the new bill is close to his heart.

"I grew up on a family farm and we still raise cattle and hay as our main operations and we used to repair everything," Hovis said.

"It didn't make any difference what it was. We could break it down and put it back together. I've got several tractors and one requires software updates. This is relatively new technology. I could fix the tractor myself if I could get my hands on the right module. That's when I found out I had to have John Deere come out at a good fee for 15 minutes' worth of work or would have to take it into their dealership. All of this got me thinking why we farmers can't get that technology to be able to do this ourselves."

Hovis said he has made changes to his new bill, which he says is more targeted to agriculture, forestry and construction.

Kevin O'Reilly, "Right to Repair" campaign director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), hosted a webinar in which Hovis and others participated.

"Farmers can't fix their own tractors. Much like everything else in our lives, modern tractors and combines run on software. The implementation of this new technology should be helping farmers increase their yields, make their operations more efficient and their lives easier. That's not always the case. Our argument is this: modern tractors are made so farmers must turn to the dealer for certain repairs. Dealership consolidation is further eroding repair choices for farmers. Manufacturers withhold certain software tools necessary to fix agricultural equipment. Farmers are forced to turn to the dealer for many repairs. This means farmers deal with repair delays, which may threaten the viability of their crops. A recent WSJ reports showed that one North Carolina farmer's repair budget went up 89% last year," O'Reilly said.

"I've heard John Deere and other manufacturers say (farmers) can do almost all of their own repairs. That may be true but what we're really talking about is where we have restrictions on access to payload files to make these things sync with the computer," Hovis said.

Wyatt Parks, a Minnesota livestock farmer, said for him, the matter is simple.

"I have the skills to do these repairs but I can't get the tools, parts and information to get up and running," he said.

"A 30-day wait for service is a serious problem. The manufacturers like Deere, Case IH, AGCO and Kubota have no competition and the system is really broken."

Hovis gets the last word.

"I'm hoping if this legislation passes in Missouri or elsewhere that ag manufacturers will come to the table as the auto industry did back in 2012 where there was an agreement reached at the national level," he said.

"We've got to get to the point where I have the ability to make repairs myself."