What's next for the farm bill?

By Thérèse Boudreaux

(The Center Square) – American farmers, ranchers, and the agricultural industry will have to wait until at least September for the U.S. Senate to take up the long-delayed farm bill.

"We're going to come back in that first week and have another vote on the same bill again," Senate Agriculture committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., said after the bill failed to advance out of committee. He added that it will be "a miracle" if the bill becomes law before the midterm elections.

Congress is woefully behind on passing a farm bill, which it is supposed to do every five years but has not since 2018.

While the U.S. House passed its version of the legislation months ago, the Senate has lagged behind on its own edition, releasing the bill text just this past week. The chambers must ultimately reconcile the differences to produce a single compromise bill.

Like the House's version, the Senate's 983-page Agricultural Act of 2026 renews and enhances crop insurance and price support, disaster assistance, risk management programs, operation and marketing loans, and federal agricultural research.

It also outlines investments in rural broadband connectivity, forest management, water infrastructure, and hospital assistance, as well as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

Unlike the House edition, the Senate's bill authorizes year-round sales of E15 gasoline nationwide and excludes the House's provision that would shield pesticide manufacturers from state-level "failure-to-warn" lawsuits.

However, the legislative measure is now unnecessary with the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruling that such personal injury lawsuits against a manufacturer that follows federal labeling requirements are unconstitutional.

Notably, it delays the "One Big Beautiful Bill's" state cost-sharing requirements for SNAP by one year, an olive branch to Democrats.

Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats viewed that as insufficient, however, and blocked the bill from advancing to the chamber floor. Currently, they are withholding support unless Republicans push back SNAP cost-sharing requirements by at least two years.

Hundreds of advocacy groups in the U.S. agricultural industry, eager for a funding update, have publicly backed both the House and Senate versions of the bill.

Many, however, expressed their disappointment with the Senate after the critical legislation stalled. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall called the gridlock "puzzling" and urged senators to "return to the table."

"At a time when farmers, ranchers and rural communities across the country are facing multiyear losses, the need for a strong, bipartisan farm bill, one that included the long-awaited year-round E15, has never been greater," Duvall said. "The reality is that this might be our last chance this year to get it done. The stakes are too high to allow the opportunity to slip away."

Due to the U.S.-Iran conflict and the Trump administration's tariffs, American farmers are getting slapped with higher operational costs, which not only raise the cost of consumer goods but also threaten small farmers' already fragile financial solvency.

The U.S. lost more than 156,000 farms between 2017 and 2025, according to 2026 U.S. Census data. From 2024 to 2025 alone, farm bankruptcy filings jumped by 46%, AFBF reported.