Why It Matters
Federal crop insurance premium subsidies reached approximately $15 billion in 2026, equal to about 66% of total premiums on average, with no statutory caps on maximum subsidies or indemnities per farmer, according to a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.
Using the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) February baseline, CRS estimates the combined federal cost of crop insurance and programs authorized by the farm bill will average about $30.6 billion annually for fiscal 2027 through fiscal 2031.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) reauthorized farm-bill commodity support programs through the 2031 crop year and expanded financial assistance and risk management options under the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) and farm-bill-authorized programs. Because payments are proportional to production, larger scale farms tend to receive more in total payments than small scale farms, subject to applicable program payment limits and eligibility criteria.
The Big Picture
The farm safety net encompasses three layers: the FCIP; commodity support authorized by the farm bill and disaster assistance programs; and ad hoc programs authorized outside a farm bill. The FCIP and farm-bill-authorized programs carry mandatory "such sums as necessary" appropriations; ad hoc programs rely on discretionary appropriations that CBO typically excludes from the farm bill baseline.
Since 2018, Congress has appropriated ad hoc funds every year except fiscal 2024, covering disasters, retaliatory tariffs, the COVID-19 pandemic and market disruptions. Ad hoc appropriations peaked at $38 billion in fiscal 2020 and reached $34.5 billion in fiscal 2025, the two largest figures among all years shown in Figure 1 of the report.
The Agricultural Act of 2014 created the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs and expanded the FCIP and farm-bill-authorized disaster assistance programs. Congress authorized and USDA initiated ad hoc support in 2025 and 2026, in part to address potential effects of high farm input prices.
Some stakeholders support additional ad hoc or farm-bill assistance to help farmers defray input costs; others argue that smaller U.S. harvests would raise market prices enough for farmers to remain profitable with less support, though higher prices could raise costs for buyers of agricultural commodities.
The House-passed Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R. 7567), sponsored by Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA-15), would make only limited changes to expected crop insurance and farm-bill-authorized program payments. The Senate committee-reported version, S. 5526, placed on the Senate legislative calendar Sept. 24, would likewise make limited changes.
The Bottom Line
The House passed H.R. 7567 on April 30, and S. 5526 is on the Senate legislative calendar. If Congress does not act on additional ad hoc support, farmers facing rising input costs would have no automatic farm bill remedy outside the Dairy Margin Coverage program. Congress may consider whether existing programs are sufficiently flexible to address changing farm circumstances.
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