Christy Seyfert. (Farm Credit Council photo)
It’s 2026, and it’s time for the House of Representatives to pass America’s “Farm Bill 2.0.”
On April 17, Farm Credit led a letter to House leadership underscoring the vital need for “Farm Bill 2.0.” More than 330 agricultural organizations, representing constituencies in all fifty states and Puerto Rico and including every Farm Credit association, lent their support to this effort.
These organizations thanked lawmakers for supporting important parts of the farm bill included as part of H.R. 1 and emphasized that critical work to pass a full suite of farm bill programs remains unfinished.
Since 2023, America’s farmers and rural communities have been left in limbo without a full, five-year farm bill. For three years, only temporary extensions and aid packages have existed to fill the gaps of an evolving — and increasingly strained — agricultural economy.
The next step is simple, and necessary: the House must pass the bipartisan Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, which was reported out of the House Agriculture Committee in March.
A farm bill doesn’t just empower current producers and operations — it helps enable their future. The committee-approved “Farm Bill 2.0” will bolster current and future next generations of agriculture by increasing and improving the tools available to them.
The financial resources offered by USDA must be modernized to reflect today’s structure and costs of growing the food that fuels our nation. The current bill contains updates to increase USDA’s Farm Service Agency direct and guaranteed loan limits, plus make these programs easier and faster for farmers to use. These changes will also allow lenders to use every tool in their toolbox to respond quickly to the needs of producers and will create a more reliable and sustainable future for agriculture.
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Supporting our producers also means supporting the rural communities where they live and work. Rural Americans deserve access to high-quality local facilities, such as hospitals, childcare centers and rural clinics, just like their peers in urban and suburban neighborhoods. The bill before the House contains key provisions to boost investment in these essential facilities by allowing Farm Credit to finance rural community facilities and encouraging partnerships on these projects with community banks.
The time to act on “Farm Bill 2.0” is now. Since the full farm bill reauthorization in 2018, the world and our agricultural economy have shifted drastically. Today’s producers must navigate rising input costs, labor shortages and low commodity prices, plus global conflict and trade volatility. According to USDA data, producers have ridden a roller coaster of ups and downs since 2018. A zoomed-in look at the current agricultural economy shows that while some commodities, such as cattle, are bright spots, many others, including row crops and specialty crops, are incredibly strained.
Each year, farmers plant seeds and ranchers raise livestock without any guarantees they will make a profit. To help manage this uncertainty, passing and enacting “Farm Bill 2.0” is essential to providing tools to producers to withstand challenges, supporting innovative research and market development and enabling long-term viability.
Farm Credit has been a reliable partner to rural America for more than 100 years. As customer‑owned cooperatives, we are rooted in our rural communities, and we reinvest our earnings directly into the farmers, ranchers and rural communities we serve — more than $3.1 billion in 2025 patronage returns alone. In this critical moment, serving rural America also includes doing our part to advocate for passage of “Farm Bill 2.0.”
By fortifying agricultural policy through “Farm Bill 2.0,” we strengthen the nation by enhancing food security, connecting communities via broadband, protecting our natural resources and ensuring ample financing options for farmers and ranchers, among other benefits. Simply put, every American – our farmers, ranchers, rural communities and consumers – relies on a complete farm bill.
The agriculture committee’s approval was the first step. Now the full House must pass the bill to take the next step toward the paramount goal: signing the Farm Bill into law this year.
The stakes could not be higher. Congress must act now, because no one can afford to wait longer for “Farm Bill 2.0.”
Christy Seyfert serves as president and CEO of the Farm Credit Council, the national trade association representing the nation’s leading provider of credit and financial services to agriculture and rural America in good times and bad. Her career in Washington includes shaping ag policy with leaders in the House and Senate and lobbying in support of agriculture for farmers and agribusinesses.