Ag News

Senate Ag Committee releases farm bill draft

On June 23, the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee released its draft of the Agricultural Act of 2026, its version of the new farm bill. The House passed its version on April 30.

The American Farm Bureau Federation called it a “good first step” and urged the full Senate to quickly pass a bipartisan farm bill.

“The bill text provides important support for farm families,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “The benefits include improved access to credit, expanded investments in specialty crops, increased transparency in fertilizer markets, and enhanced research and conservation programs. The discussion draft is a good first step and provides a solid foundation that Farm Bureau will work to improve upon as the Senate moves toward markup.”

Duvall noted severe economic pressures facing America’s farmers and ranchers and highlighted actions that should be taken to improve economic conditions in rural America.

“While we have seen meaningful progress, more action is needed from Congress to ensure farmers can continue to supply dinner for families across America,” Duvall said.

A committee summary of the 902-page Senate farm bill follows. To read the bill in its entirety or view other committee-releases materials about the bill, click here.

For farmers and ranchers the bill:

• Builds on the farm safety net investments in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, signed into law in July 2025,  by further improving existing commodity, dairy, standing disaster and crop insurance programs while expanding opportunities tailored to the unique needs of specialty crop producers.

• Streamlines and strengthens conservation programs while creating two new broadly popular initiatives: the Forest Conservation Easement Program and the State Conservation Assistance Program.

• Fine-tunes the Conservation Reserve Program to improve grazing options, including during drought.

• Bolsters Buy American requirements across nutrition programs.

• Elevates U.S. seafood industry by codifying USDA’s Office of Seafood and expanding credit access for commercial fishing operators.

• Promotes common sense changes for U.S. Forest Service to implement critical forest health

For rural communities, the bill:

• Supports local and regional meat and poultry processing, including new funding opportunities and additional regulatory guidance for small processors and renderers.

• Improves access to USDA Rural Development programs and private capital so rural communities can strengthen critical utility and community infrastructure to provide vital services including healthcare, education, childcare and workforce development.

• Enhances the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network to expand access to critical mental health care in rural communities.

• Boosts financing, technical assistance, water quality testing and filtration to improve access to safe and reliable drinking water for rural residents.

•Expands reliable high-speed broadband access by strengthening and modernizing USDA connectivity programs.

Other key provisions in the bill:

• Modernizes farm loan programs to provide the next generation with the capital and tools necessary to keep American agriculture strong and competitive on a global scale.

• Strengthens innovation and market opportunities to increase domestic consumption of American agricultural commodities.

• Creates a new specialty crop mechanization and automation research program with dedicated funding.

• More than doubles funding for the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program using investments made available in the Working Families Tax Cuts.

• Expands opportunities to address emerging, underserved and previously neglected priorities in agricultural research and extension.

• Promotes innovation by creating a regulatory pathway for plant biostimulants.

• Defends the security of U.S. agricultural land and food supply chains by strengthening foreign ownership disclosure requirements and enforcement.

 

---

• Categories:

• Tags:

---