Why It Matters
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates federal farm income support payments through Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) at $13.2 billion for crop year 2025. That's 132 times the 2023 actual total of $0.1 billion, and the largest single-year PLC figure in the data covering crop years 2014 through 2025, according to a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.
ARC County payments for crop year 2025 are estimated at $2.0 billion, four times the 2023 actual of $0.5 billion. Both figures are USDA estimates as of March, and should be read as provisional. The 2025 ARC and PLC payments were disbursed Oct. 1.
The Big Picture
Congress created PLC and ARC in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-79) to replace prior commodity support programs. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), signed July 4, 2025, extended both programs through crop year 2031, raised payment limits from $125,000 to $155,000 per person or legal entity and authorized up to 30 million additional base acres. It also raised the PLC statutory reference price for soybeans by $1.60 per bushel, from $8.40 to $10.00, the largest absolute per-bushel increase among the commodities listed in the report.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in its February baseline, projected PLC would trigger payments in every crop year from 2027 to 2036 for commodities including barley, sorghum, rice and wheat, but zero times for dry peas, chickpeas and oats. The report identifies that disparity as a potential source of geographic inequity, since regions tend to produce different commodity mixes.
Statutory price-averaging rules delay payments more than a year after harvest, meaning payments may not address farmers' cash-flow needs during low-price years and may lower the farm bill's CBO budget score by shifting one year of payments outside the 10-year scoring window.
The House-passed Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, sponsored by Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), would make no changes to PLC, ARC, base acres, or eligibility criteria. The Senate Agriculture Committee-reported version, S. 5526, would require a study of making dry beans eligible for PLC and ARC, grant an additional 1.5 million base acres and allow certain tax preparers to submit forms on farmers' behalf.
The Bottom Line
H.R. 7567 passed the House April 30 and was received by the Senate May 19; S. 5526 was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar Sept. 24 as Calendar No. 683. The two chambers have not reconciled their versions, and no standalone 2026 farm bill has been enacted. The programs are extended through crop year 2031 under P.L. 119-21 and receive mandatory "such sums as necessary" appropriations, funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation.
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