President Donald Trump is pressuring Congress to pass a long-stalled farm bill, publicly urging lawmakers to act as divisions persist between the House and Senate over key provisions of the sweeping legislation.
“CONGRESS, PASS THE FARM BILL, NOW!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on March 20.
The measure, formally titled the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, advanced out of the House Agriculture Committee earlier this month following a marathon markup session led by Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15), who serves as Committee Chairman. The panel approved the bill in a 34-17 vote, with unanimous Republican support and backing from a small group of Democrats, setting the stage for a full House vote.
In the Senate, however, the path forward remains uncertain. Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), who serves as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has cautioned that several House provisions — including a proposed federal response to California’s Proposition 12 — could face resistance, even as he emphasized the need for the chamber to advance its own version of the bill. Boozman has publicly stated that the Senate version of the bill will be released “in a couple of months”.
The push comes as lawmakers continue to rely on temporary extensions of the last comprehensive farm bill, passed in Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. Although that law expired in 2023, Congress has renewed it annually while negotiations over a broader update have stalled.
Some policy changes have moved forward in the interim. Portions of farm support were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed by Trump last year, which increased commodity program support, expanded crop insurance options and boosted funding for conservation and animal disease prevention.
The current House proposal — dubbed “Farm Bill 2.0” by some lawmakers — would go further, pairing traditional farm programs with contentious changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), including proposed spending reductions that have drawn criticism from anti-hunger advocates and some Democrats.
Agricultural groups warn that failure to pass a new bill before the current extension expires on Sept. 30, 2026, could deepen financial strain across the farm economy, as producers contend with persistently high costs for fuel, fertilizer and other inputs.
