McConnell's Farmland Protection Bill Signed Into Law

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell successfully introduced the Protecting American Farmlands Act, which was signed into law by President Trump as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill on July 4. The legislation defers capital gains tax over four years when farmland is sold to farmers who commit to keeping the land in agricultural production for at least ten years, aiming to curb the rapid loss of farmland nationwide. This law responds to significant declines in farmland acreage and farmer numbers, particularly in Kentucky, where farmland has dropped by over 1.4 million acres in the past 20 years and the number of farms has decreased substantially. The Kentucky Farm Bureau supports the legislation, highlighting its role in facilitating land transition to future generations of farmers and preserving agricultural productivity. Separately, in Ireland, local senators Patricia Stephenson and Malcolm Noonan back a bill to strengthen legal protections for domestic violence survivors by creating a new indictable offense for breaches of domestic violence orders, addressing patterns of coercive control and aiming to reduce gender-based violence.