Farm Bill

Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman, who has consistently said he doesn’t want to touch the state SNAP cost sharing requirements enacted in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, tells Agri-Pulse Newsmakers he’s open to providing some relief to states working to comply.

 The Senate’s draft farm bill doesn’t include language for year-round E15 or the elimination of California’s Proposition 12, but Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman is still highly optimistic both measures will make it through Congress this year. The two biggest U.S. ethanol trade groups are defending the Trump administration against legal challenges to EPA biofuel-blending rules from environmentalists, biogas groups and oil refiners.

Only nine states had payment error rates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program below 6% in fiscal 2025, USDA has announced, which would allow them to avoid paying a portion of SNAP benefits starting in October 2027. Another six, as well as the District of Columbia, were above a higher threshold that gives them a two-year delay.

Discussion on the potential for Senate passage of an E15 bill swirled on Capitol Hill Tuesday after the release of a draft farm bill that doesn’t include the pro-ethanol measure. A bill to expedite Emergency Conservation Program payments to producers whose land has been damaged by wildfires cleared the House Tuesday with a 386-19 vote. It now heads to the president’s desk for his signature.

Partisan fighting over nutrition aid policy is threatening to derail efforts to pass a Senate farm bill. 

The Senate Agriculture Committee's five-year "farm bill 2.0" would bolster key farm and rural development initiatives while sidestepping the most controversial food and ag issues of the day. 

U.S. talks to end the war with Iran advanced over the weekend even as uncertainty hung over the status of trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Even in the best-case scenario for resuming key cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz, it will take time for disrupted energy and fertilizer markets to recover, says Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute.

A highly anticipated farm bill draft is in focus as senators kick off their last full legislative work week before a 10-day recess. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is in India this week for bilateral trade talks.

A New Mexico dog confirmed with a case of New World screwworm last week is no longer believed to have traveled to Mexico, New Mexico Agriculture Secretary Jeff Witte says. As Senate Agriculture Committee leaders prepare to release farm bill text, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch says lawmakers need to focus on the growing economic reality that farmers are spending more to produce crops than they're earning. 

A peace deal between the U.S. and Iran was forged Sunday after 107 days of war that wreaked economic chaos on global fuel and fertilizer supply chains. In Washington, the House is in recess all week while the Senate reconvenes Monday afternoon.