{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-aroostook-county-farmer-push-congressional-action-on-right-to-repair-in-small-business-committee-hearing", "Golden, Aroostook County Farmer Push Congressional Action on Right to Repair in Small Business Committee Hearing", "2022-09-14", "2022", "2022-09", "Democrat", "House", "ME", "Jared F. Golden", "G000592", "golden.house.gov", "golden", "https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) used his position as chairman of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Underserved, Agricultural, and Rural Development today to push Congress to address restrictions from manufacturers that impair small businesses\u2019 ability to fix their own equipment and machinery.\n\nHe was joined at the hearing by Jim Gerritsen, a farmer at Wood Prairie Family Farm in Bridgewater, Maine who offered testimony on the impact the repair restrictions were having on his family\u2019s business.\n\n\u201cFor generations, small farmers have been able to make repairs on the spot and continue working when a tractor or other piece of equipment breaks down, but today a malfunction in just one part of a tractor can cause an entire machine to stop working and force a farmer to stop their harvest to haul equipment to a dealership or wait for a field technician,\u201d said Golden. \u201cThese burdensome delays can cost small farms days in wasted productivity and thousands of dollars in revenue. And these restrictions don\u2019t just impact entrepreneurs that use machinery; they also hurt the many independent businesses that work to repair these products. Independent repair shops frequently offer lower prices and better service than large manufacturers. These are just two pieces of decades of evidence that repair restrictions raise costs, hurt small businesses, and encourage waste.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe would never choose to place ourselves in the vulnerable position of being at the mercy of malfunctioning electronic sensors, then being involuntarily forced into \u2018limp mode,\u2019 and becoming locked out from using equipment we \u2018own\u2019 until an expensive dealer mechanic arrives at their convenience with their rescuing computer software,\u201d said Jim Gerritsen from Wood Prairie Family Farm. \u201cWhen a problem as common and as minor as water condensation in a diesel tank can cause a sudden \u2018limp mode\u2019 restriction during peak planting or harvest, not only is an individual farmer placed at risk, but extrapolating the system vulnerability, so is our nation\u2019s food security.\u201d\n\nIn 2021, the Federal Trade Commission identified ways that manufacturers have taken advantage of technologically advanced business-critical products by restricting access to the proprietary tools necessary to maintain and repair their products. This makes it difficult for small businesses to operate cost-effectively because they are often forced to use only manufacturer-approved repair services, or even to pay to fully replace malfunctioning devices because repairs are unavailable.\n\nYou can view the full hearing here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:08:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-aroostook-county-farmer-push-congressional-action-on-right-to-repair-in-small-business-committee-hearing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.279349137097597, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}