Why It Matters
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-334) expired in 2023 and has since been extended three times, making the current reauthorization the longest in the Congressional Research Service's (CRS) 62-year historical record. If Congress fails to enact a full farm bill before the end of crop year 2026, permanent law dating to the Agricultural Acts of 1938 and 1949 would reactivate, including extremely costly dairy price support formulas.
According to a new report from the Congressional Research Service, budget reconciliation rules prohibited policy changes without a mandatory spending budgetary effect, leaving discretionary programs facing expiration and creating pressure for a separate, full reauthorization. That constraint has sharpened the stakes for the Trump administration, which must navigate competing legislative timelines while agricultural constituencies await certainty on programs spanning farm commodities, nutrition, crop insurance, and conservation.
The breadth of those programs means the consequences of continued delay extend to nutrition assistance and rural development funding embedded in the legislation.
The Big Picture
In 2025, Congress amended selected provisions of the 2018 farm bill through an agriculture title in the fiscal year 2025 Budget Reconciliation Law (P.L. 119-21), covering crop years 2025 through 2031 for programs with mandatory spending, including farm commodities, nutrition, crop insurance, and conservation. That partial fix left the broader reauthorization unfinished and set the stage for competing House and Senate proposals in 2026.
The House passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R. 7567) on April 30 by a vote of 224-200, after the House Committee on Agriculture approved it March 5 by a vote of 34-17. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry reported the Agricultural Act of 2026 on September 16 by a vote of 12-11, following a markup on August 6, but the full Senate has not yet voted on the measure. The narrow margins in both chambers signal that any conference agreement will require careful vote-counting on both sides of the Capitol.
The CRS report notes a long-term trend toward more complicated and politically sensitive farm bills, with recent reauthorizations experiencing delayed enactment, failed initial floor votes, extensions, and presidential vetoes. Extensions, once atypical, have now occurred in three of the past four reauthorizations, in the 2008, 2013, and 2024–2026 reauthorization periods.
The only time a farm bill was enacted via veto override was in 2008, when President George W. Bush twice vetoed the legislation and Congress overrode both vetoes. That episode remains the starkest illustration of how contentious the reauthorization process can become when the White House and Congress are at odds over agricultural policy priorities.
The Bottom Line
With the House and Senate operating on divergent legislative tracks, narrow committee margins in both chambers, and a crop year 2026 deadline approaching, the unresolved question is whether Congress can bridge the gap between the two competing versions before permanent law reverts, a scenario that would carry significant financial and political consequences for agricultural constituencies.
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