The House Agriculture Committee unveiled a draft farm bill Friday that would revamp a key international food aid program, boost risk management options for specialty crop growers and nullify California's controversial Proposition 12 standards for animal welfare.
The Republican-led panel aims to take up the legislation Feb. 23 and advance it out of committee by Feb. 25.
The measure, which House Ag Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson has referred to as "farm bill 2.0," tackles provisions not passed and signed into law last year as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed under budget reconciliation rules that limit what kind of provisions can be included.
“This bill provides modern policies for modern challenges and is shaped by years of listening to the needs of farmers, ranchers, and rural Americans," Thompson said in a statement. "The farm bill affects our entire country, regardless of whether you live on a farm, and I look forward to seeing my colleagues in Congress work together to get this critical legislation across the finish line.”
A full five-year farm bill hasn’t cleared Congress since 2018 amid partisan gridlock over federal nutrition programs. Rep. Angie Craig, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, is openly critical of the panel’s priorities and last month introduced a bill to roll back President Donald Trump’s tariffs, protect low-income families from losing food assistance and provide $17 billion in additional federal aid to financially struggling farmers.
Republicans are expected to propose around $15 billion for farmers struggling with lower crop prices, soft demand and high production costs, to augment the Trump administration's $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program announced in December. Such aid could be taken up later as part of a supplemental funding bill, separate from the farm legislation.
Craig on Friday said while she's still reviewing the text, "based on what I know, the Republican farm bill fails to meet the moment facing farmers and working people."
"Farmers need Congress to act swiftly to end inflationary tariffs, stabilize trade relationships, expand domestic market opportunities like year-round E15 and help lower input costs," Craig said. "The Republican majority instead chose to ignore Democratic priorities and focus on pushing a shell of a farm bill with poison pills that complicates if not derails chances of getting anything done."
Food for Peace, trade promotion
The draft farm bill released Friday would permanently move the Food for Peace assistance program to the Department of Agriculture. USDA is managing the program for 2026 after signing an interagency agreement with the State Department and Office of Management and Budget late last year. But without amending the statute, which houses the program within the now-dissolved U.S. Agency for International Development, a new interagency agreement would be needed every year to keep it at USDA.
The bill text also includes language to reallocate new trade promotion program funding to the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act put some $285 million into a new trade promotion program because appropriations rules prevented it from going towards existing programs. Those additional funds would now be folded into MAP, FMD and other trade promotion programs
MAP funding would increase from $200 million to $410 million under the proposals, while the FMD program would receive an additional $47.5 million to bring its total funding to $82 million, from $34.5 million today.
The Emerging Markets Program, Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) and Priority Trade Fund (PTF) would also receive funding bumps under the bill. Some $5 million will also be available for efforts to expand infrastructure in emerging economies to facilitate ag imports – including cold chain capacity and port improvements – as proposed in the “FRIDGE Act.”
The bill also would direct USDA to work with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate protections for common ag product names in foreign markets and counter the European Union’s use of geographic indicators – which has been a priority in recent trade negotiations.
Specialty crops, risk management
House Republicans are also using the bill to direct USDA to study U.S. specialty crop exports. The text calls for the ag secretary to report to Congress on trade barriers in foreign markets that may be inhibiting U.S. sales.
Under the bill, an advisory panel would be created to focus on insurance needs of specialty crop producers. It also calls for the research and development of new policies aimed at coming up with policies for crops that currently don't have access to insurance.
There's also a call to study how to update risk management within the insurance system, a move aimed at strengthening private sector delivery,
Prop 12, pesticides
The bill would prevent any state from imposing “a condition or standard” for raising covered livestock located outside of its state.
The Supreme Court upheld California’s Proposition 12 in 2023. That law does not allow the sale in the state of any eggs or pork derived from animals not raised according to California’s animal housing standards. The National Pork Producers Council and other farm groups have been pushing for the provision, claiming that many small producers cannot afford to make needed changes to their operations.
The bill also seeks to achieve national uniformity in pesticide labeling by prohibiting states or courts from penalizing or holding liable “any entity for failing to comply with requirements that would require labeling or packaging that is in addition to or different from the labeling or packaging approved by [EPA] administrator.”
However, the bill also says states will still have authority to impose more restrictive measures on pesticides or address local needs – provisions known as 24(c) and 24(a) in the Federal, Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
The bill seeks to hold “bad actors” responsible by allowing states to make label changes for pesticides made by entities that have violated certain provisions of FIFRA, such as by submitting false data.
SNAP, hemp
The bill would allow states to hire contractors on a temporary basis to assist with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program administrative duties for various reasons, including if the state’s error rate is above 6%. In addition to shifting more of the administrative expenses of the program to states starting in October, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act requires states with error rates above 6% to pay between 5-15% of SNAP benefits.
In addition, the bill would require USDA to issue a proposed rule within six months of passage of the bill addressing EBT card security through the use of chips in the cards.
The bill would give the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services the option to update dietary guidelines every 10 years instead of the current five years.
On hemp, the bill would require state and tribal plans to include procedures for testing total THC content as opposed to delta-9 THC, to conform with current practice. It also directs USDA to work with the Drug Enforcement Administration to speed the accreditation of laboratories to test hemp.
Precision ag
On conservation, the bill would allow funds for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and Conservation Stewardship Program to go toward precision ag technologies. It would also allow EQIP money to be used for repairs to farming infrastructure near Texas’s southern border. Minimum payments through CSP would be upped to $4,000.
The measure would also reauthorize CSP through fiscal 2031, maintaining the program’s current 27-million-acre cap.
For the Agricultural Land Easement Program, it would increase federal cost share from 50% to 65%, change program certification processes, and allow more flexibilities for reconciling easement deed terms.
The Regional Conservation Partnership Program be given some 2014-era flexibilities for altering program rules, though USDA would be required to streamline RCPP partnership agreements and make approvals within 180 days and provide payments to partners in 30 days. Up to 10% of agreement funds could be used to cover administrative expenses incurred by project partners, and the program would be expanded to cover flood resiliency and drought-mitigation practices.
The bill’s credit title includes language updating loan limits:
- USDA guaranteed operating loans to $3 million
- Guaranteed ownership loans to $3.5 million
- Direct operating loans to $750,000
- Direct ownership loans to $850,000
- Microloans to $100,000.
New farmers
As the U.S. ag industry struggles to attract a younger generation, the legislation would reduce experience requirements for loans to allow more beginning farmers to take advantage of them. It also would limit regulations on entity structures that can be used in farm transitions, and establish a pre-approval pilot program for USDA ownership, guaranteed ownership, and operating loans.
The bill would allow Farm Credit System institutions to fund fishing industry businesses and would establish the Farm Credit Administration as their sole regulator. It would also allow them to partner with community banks to fund rural healthcare, childcare and emergency services facilities.
When it comes to rural development, the bill would create a three-year rural childcare initiative that directs USDA to prioritize funds from an array of programs toward childcare projects.
On connectivity tech issues, it would combine the ReConnect Program with the Farm Bill Broadband Program, and raise minimum eligibility speeds from 25/3 megabits per second to 50/24 megabits per second. The consolidated program, which will be called the ReConnect Rural Broadband Program, would be authorized at $350 million per year for five years.
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