Farm bill faces uphill climb with mid-year politics in play

The challenge of moving a farm bill through Congress is on display this week as lawmakers argue over everything from ethanol to pesticides amid a high-stakes election year.

The House Agriculture Committee is taking up what Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson calls “farm bill 2.0,” a nod to the piecemeal approach taken on ag legislation in recent years.

The farm bill got off to a rocky start when the proposed measure was introduced last month. The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Angie Craig, accused the Republican-led panel of ignoring most of her party’s priorities. Thompson rejected the claims.

“Throughout the creation of this farm bill, it was an open and honest process,” the Pennsylvania Republican said in opening remarks of the measure’s markup on Tuesday. “My door was open to anyone who had practical, actionable items for improving ag policy.”

Craig countered by saying only 10% of priorities of Democrats were included in the bill. “It’s not been a bipartisan process,” she said.

The feud shines light on the steep climb required to pass a stand-alone farm bill, even a scaled back one. The measure up for debate and committee vote this week deals with updates to ag programs not addressed last year in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the tax legislation passed using a procedure requiring only a simple majority to pass.

The narrow margins in the House and this year’s congressional midterm elections make passing any piece of legislation a heavy lift, but especially a farm bill that brings up a raft of both partisan and regional points of contention, including President Donald Trump’s tariffs, nutrition programs, biofuel policy, farm chemicals and the treatment of livestock raised for food.

Two of the committee’s members, both Republicans, are facing congressional re-election bids deemed too close to call, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. They are Reps. Zach Nunn of Iowa and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.  

Meanwhile, Craig is a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, while Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra is vying to be the next governor of Iowa.

Two years ago, during the 2024 congressional and presidential elections, the House Ag Committee managed to pass a $1.5 trillion farm bill, with the help of four critical Democratic votes, but the legislation never made it further through Congress.

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Markup begins

House Ag Committee members began debating the proposed farm bill on Tuesday night in an opening session that started about 6 p.m. and went to nearly midnight. 

A top complaint by Democrats was the lack of provisions in the measure addressing last year’s $187 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Thompson said the absence was due in part to budget constraints.

“While we have not abandoned these priorities, more work is needed to ensure these investments are responsibly funded,” he said. “It is irresponsible to move
 forward a bill that increases mandatory spending with no offsets.”

Other major flashpoints include pesticide labeling that critics say serves to protect companies against lawsuits. It’s an awkward issue for the Trump administration as the president’s vow to “make America healthy again” reinvigorated a fight against farm chemicals like glyphosate, the world’s most widely used weed killer.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., calls the bill a “giveaway” to pesticide manufacturers like Bayer. “This farm bill is corporate control with a wellness label slapped on top, and to be blunt, it sucks,” he said. “It’s a blank check to those who want to protect the broken status quo.”

Craig decried the bill for not including an expansion of U.S. ethanol sought by the ag industry for more than a decade. Specifically, a measure to allow year-round, nationwide sales of higher ethanol fuel blends, known as E15. Thompson countered by saying the issue was under the oversight of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Still, it’s possible an amendment on the corn-based biofuel could be offered this week.

Sen. John Hoeven told Agri-Pulse that the Senate version of a farm bill could include E15 language. The North Dakota Republican is a member of the Senate Ag Committee.

Farm bill woes 

Thompson’s push for new ag legislation comes as Congress has gone without passing a full, five-year farm bill since 2023, marking the longest period without such legislation in the history of the bill.

“Republicans should have worked with Democrats to pass a five-year, 12-title farm bill. Instead, we are here to mark up a so-called “skinny” farm bill – the last pieces of the jig-saw puzzle of a farm bill,” Craig said.

But Thompson noted that more than 200 organizations support the legislation. 

"The bill we are deliberating today didn’t spontaneously appear in the halls of Congress. It was formed out in the fields, pastures, and town halls of our country," Thompson said. "If you are disappointed that a priority is not addressed in this text, please know that I understand, as the bill  is missing many of my priorities as well. But we must not let perfect be the enemy of good."