Farm bill tracker · national

The 2026 Farm Bill

What it changes for a corn and soybean farm this year: not much.

Your ARC and PLC numbers are already law: reference prices of $4.10 for corn and $10.00 for soybeans through 2030, and crop insurance runs on permanent law. What is stuck: new CRP enrollment and new aid money.

House passed 224–200 · Apr 30, 2026 Senate Ag Committee passed S. 5526, 12–11 · Sep 16, 2026 Extension lapsed Sep 30, 2026 · Senate back Nov 9
The next 90 days
  1. Election dayNothing changes on your farm. It decides who closes the deal. Any bill not passed by early January dies with this Congress and starts over.
  2. Senate backFirst chance for a Senate floor vote on S. 5526 (60 votes) and a House-Senate deal.
  3. Stopgap funding endsCongress has to pass funding again. An extension could ride on that bill. The one that runs to Dec 11 carried none.
  4. Permanent law, dairy firstIf nothing passes, the 1949 Act starts with milk: USDA would have to support it at parity, which CRS put at 252% of the market price in July 2025.

A bill passes: Five more years of rules. CRP reopens and the Jan 1 problem goes away (both bills extend the permanent-law suspension through 2031).

A short extension: Depends on what it carries. It fixes Jan 1 only if it extends the permanent-law suspension.

Nothing: Insurance, ARC and PLC keep running. CRP stays shut to new acres. Dairy hits permanent law Jan 1, wheat Jun 1, corn Oct 1.

Where does the 2026 farm bill stand?

It has not passed. The House passed H.R. 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, 224 to 200 on April 30, 2026, and the Senate received it May 19. The Senate Agriculture Committee reported its own bill, S. 5526, the Agricultural Act of 2026, on September 24, 2026; in the Congress bill record of October 28, its last action is still a place on the Senate calendar, with no floor vote. Whether the two become one law, and when, is not decided.

Last checked Oct 28, 2026. Sources: H.R. 7567 bill status, all actions (GPO) · S. 5526 bill status, all actions (GPO)

The 60-second readUpdated Oct 16, 2026
Status
The House passed H.R. 7567; the Senate Ag Committee passed S. 5526. No Senate floor vote yet. Neither bill is law.
The money
Programs carry a $1.374T ten-year baseline. Each bill's own change scores about budget-neutral.
Biggest line
Nutrition (SNAP) is 71.7% of the baseline. Four titles are ~99% of it.
Lapsed
The extension expired Sep 30, 2026. The stopgap funding law through Dec 11 does not extend it; new CRP enrollment is paused until Congress acts.
Next step
Congress returns Nov 9, after the election. Boozman wants a deal with the House and a Senate floor vote (60 votes) before the permanent-law cliff on Jan 1, 2027.
Not in either bill
The $15–17B in extra economic aid lawmakers proposed this year (January figures; $17.3B by June, per DTN) sits outside both farm bills. We have not seen it pass as of Oct 15.
If you farm for a living
  • Your program numbers aren't in play. The 2025 reconciliation law (P.L. 119–21) runs ARC and PLC through the 2031 crop year and set the reference prices through 2030. Its crop-insurance premium-support changes are permanent. Neither bill reopens them.
  • Little here needs action from you. Sep 30 was Congress's deadline, not yours. No insurance date or ARC/PLC signup changes while the bill is pending. The exception: new CRP enrollment is paused until Congress acts, and crop insurance runs on permanent law either way.
  • The aid money isn't real yet. The $15–17B economic-aid push (proposed in January; $17.3B by June) sits outside both bills: no rules, no signup, no timeline. Anyone quoting your payment is guessing. Know your own number instead: break-even per acre · what you can safely pre-sell.
What this means for my operation
What actually happened October 1

The extension ran out Sep 30 and was not renewed. Most of what you depend on kept running.

Crop insurance, ARC and PLC and SNAP kept running. New CRP enrollment, six programs with no budget baseline and two small dairy programs stopped. The date that matters is January 1, 2027, when permanent law starts with dairy. The extension (P.L. 119–37, Div. E §5002) ran through FY2026 and crop year 2026; the stopgap funding law to December 11 did not extend it.

What kept running, what stopped, and the January 1 cliff Program by program, with the CRS sources.

Did not change on October 1

  • Crop insurance. It runs on permanent statutory authority. It does not lapse, it has never lapsed, and no farm bill deadline touches your policy, your premium support or your guarantee.
  • Reference prices, ARC and PLC, base acres. Set by the 2025 reconciliation law (P.L. 119–21) through the 2031 crop year.
  • SNAP. Continues as long as Congress appropriates for it, which is a separate fight on a separate calendar.

Actually stopped

  • The programs reconciliation left without a budget baseline: nothing to spend, so nothing to continue. Named by CRS: Biobased Markets, Specialty Crop Block Grants, the Local Agriculture Market Program, Organic Agriculture Research and Extension, Animal Disease Prevention and Management, and Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach.
  • New CRP enrollment. FSA set Sep 30 as the last day to approve CRP contracts; after it the agency has no statutory authority to approve new ones, even with money left. FSA says a new notice will follow if Congress re-authorizes CRP (DTN, Oct 1, 2026).
  • Some small dairy programs, including Dairy Forward Pricing and the Dairy Indemnity Payment Program (Farm Policy News, Oct 2026).
  • They resume when a farm bill or another extension restores them. If you are not in one of those programs and not signing up new CRP acres, October 1 was a headline and not an event.

The date that actually matters is January 1, 2027

The suspension of permanent law (the 1938 and 1949 Acts that still sit underneath all of this) runs through the 2026 crop year. The 2025 reconciliation law did not extend it. CRS is blunt about why: those extensions “have not scored as having a budgetary effect,” so there was no reason to carry one in a reconciliation bill.

Without congressional action, permanent law begins to take effect January 1, 2027. Dairy goes first, then wheat on June 1 and corn on October 1. In July 2025 the permanent-law parity support price for milk was 252% of the market price of milk: USDA would be required to buy milk until the market got there.

That is the cliff. It is three months past the deadline everyone was writing about. Both bills would fix it by extending the suspension through crop year 2031, but neither is law, and the Senate committee's September 16 vote does not change that. Congress has from Nov 9 to the end of the year to pass a bill or an extension, and a short-term extension would only fix it if it carries the suspension with it.

Sources: Congressional Research Service, R48775: The Farm Bill After FY2025 Budget Reconciliation, for the permanent-law suspension expiring with crop year 2026, the January 1, 2027 reversion and its commodity order, the 252% July 2025 parity figure, the unfunded program list, and the citation for the current extension. We have not independently confirmed the parity figure against USDA’s own tables. It is CRS’s number and is labelled as such. Lapsed dairy programs: Farm Policy News (Oct 2026).

01 Where the money goes

The $1.374 trillion baseline

This is the ten-year (FY2027–FY2036) projection of what farm bill programs spend under current law, the baseline, not any bill's changes. Both the House and Senate bills build on this same baseline. Four titles account for roughly 99% of it. Nutrition (SNAP) alone is just under three-quarters.

$1.374T
10-yr baseline
FY2027–FY2036
71.7%
Nutrition (SNAP)
share of baseline
99%
In four titles
nutrition · insurance · commodities · conservation
12
Titles
in the omnibus bill
Nutrition (SNAP)
$985.4B · 71.7%
Crop Insurance
$155.5B · 11.3%
Commodities
$142.6B · 10.4%
Conservation
$73.0B · 5.3%
All other titles
$17.0B · 1.2%

The total is about 0.7% ($10B) lower than the January 2025 baseline of $1.384T, and distributed differently. The 2025 budget reconciliation law cut projected nutrition outlays and raised the other titles. So part of the "farm bill" money story already happened in a separate law. Related on AGSIST: the ARC or PLC calculator for 2026 and 2027, tariffs and the USDA report calendar.

02 What the bills actually change

Both close to budget-neutral

Each bill’s own score, its change from the baseline, is small. The figures below are CBO’s score of the House bill (H.R. 7567): a wash on mandatory spending, with the real action a reshuffle inside conservation. We have not found a CBO score for S. 5526 as of Oct 15.

+$162M
House mandatory change
FY2026–FY2031 (6 yr)
$0
House mandatory change
FY2026–FY2036 (11 yr), neutral
$22.5B
Discretionary authorizations
subject to appropriation, FY2026–FY2036 (11 yr)

The largest line items in the House score (EQIP −$786M and the rest) open with all twelve titles below.

03 House vs Senate

The two bills, side by side

Same twelve titles, same 2025 base. These are the differences a House-Senate deal would have to settle.

House · H.R. 7567
Senate · S. 5526, Agricultural Act of 2026
Status & length
Passed the House 224–200 on Apr 30; ~800 pages; CBO-scored.
Failed in committee Aug 6, then passed 12–11 on Sep 16; reported Sep 24 as S. 5526. No CBO score found as of Oct 15; no floor vote yet.
Overall cost
Budget-neutral by CBO (+$162M over 6 yr, $0 over 11 yr).
Described as budget-neutral; no detailed CBO score found as of Oct 15.
Conservation
Cuts EQIP −$786M and redistributes to other conservation programs.
Raises easement cost-share (50→60%); new Forest Conservation Easement and State Conservation Assistance ($50M/yr) programs. Pays for part of that by cutting EQIP and CSP funding (CRS, on the Jun 23 draft).
Farm loan limits
Guaranteed operating loans to $3M, guaranteed ownership loans to $3.5M (NALC, on the House-passed text).
The same $3M and $3.5M guaranteed caps, indexed to inflation; direct limits also rise.
Trade
Moves Food for Peace administration toward USDA; extends Bill Emerson Trust.
More than doubles MAP and FMD funding; defends common food names abroad.
Nutrition (SNAP)
Extends SNAP through 2031; states may outsource certification.
Extends SNAP; staffing flexibility, permanent online purchasing, Buy American school meals. The state cost-share timing sank the Aug 6 vote: Republicans want a one-year delay (to FY2029), Democrats a two-year delay (to FY2030) so all states start together.
Contentious riders
The floor struck the pesticide-labeling preemption sections, 280–142 (Luna amendment, Apr 30). It kept the Prop 12 fix (Sec. 12006, barring state rules on how out-of-state livestock is raised); a bid to strike it was not allowed a floor vote.
The revised text includes year-round E15 and replaces small-refinery exemptions after 2027. On Aug 6 the committee adopted 34 amendments in one bipartisan package (moving Food for Peace to USDA among them) and one by roll call: Thune’s beef country-of-origin labeling amendment, 17–6. The other 13 failed on party lines. Hemp and state animal-confinement laws (Prop 12) stay out.
Economic aid
Not included.
Not included. The $15–17B aid proposals are separate.
04 Title by title

All twelve titles, and the House score line by line

Each title’s ten-year baseline, what it covers and its headline change, plus the biggest increases and cuts in CBO’s score of the House bill.

05 Where it stands

The path to the President's desk

What’s actually in the way · as of Oct 16

  • Committee is done. The floor is not. On Aug 6 Sens. McConnell and Tuberville were both absent, and a committee proxy vote cannot be the deciding vote, so the bill failed 10–11 (NSAC, sources below). McConnell came back for the 12–11 vote on Sep 16.
  • The 60-vote math still applies. A farm bill needs 60 votes to pass the full Senate, and Republicans hold nowhere near that on their own. The committee vote was party-line. Democrats are still holding out for a two-year delay in the SNAP state cost-share; the bill has one year.
  • No floor time until Nov 9. The lame-duck session also has to fund the government past Dec 11. Boozman says the committees will keep working on a deal with the House until then.
  • Conference is still ahead. Even a Senate floor win only produces a Senate bill. It would still need to be reconciled with the House-passed H.R. 7567 before either version reaches the President. Republican staff from both committees started informal talks in late September; no formal conference has been named.
Every step so far, from House committee to enactment Each step with its date: done, pending and still ahead.
House committee
House Ag reported it favorably, 34–17 · Mar 5, 2026
passed
CBO score
House bill scored budget-neutral over 11 years · Apr 24, 2026
done
House floor
Passed 224–200, bipartisan · Apr 30, 2026
passed
Senate draft
Boozman released the Agricultural Act of 2026 discussion draft · Jun 23, 2026
released
Senate markup
Committee voted it down 10–11 along party lines on Aug 6: McConnell (health) and Tuberville were absent, and a proxy cannot be the deciding vote, so Democrats could block it over the SNAP cost-share timing. Boozman recessed, not adjourned
failed
Senate revote
Committee passed it 12–11 along party lines on Sep 16: Sen. McConnell returned to cast the deciding Republican vote. Reported to the Senate as S. 5526 on Sep 24 (bill text as reported, GPO)
passed
Senate floor
Needs 60 votes. The Senate left Sep 30 for the midterms without taking it up. It returns Nov 9; Boozman expects a floor vote after the election
pending
Conference
Reconcile the House and Senate versions into one bill. Republican staff from both committees started informal talks in late September; Boozman wants bipartisan talks during the recess
talks
Enactment
CBO's April score assumed an early-August signing; that window passed. The committee chairs now aim for year's end, in the lame-duck session that starts Nov 9
Deadline
Extension lapsed · Sep 30, 2026. The stopgap funding law through Dec 11 did not renew it
lapsed

Update log

What changed on this page, and when, since June 20, 2026.
Oct 16, 2026
Two corrections and a missing vote. Dairy Forward Pricing: the Senate text renews it through 2031; this page said both bills made it permanent. The Aug 6 amendments: we said Food for Peace, specialty crops and fertilizer passed; the record shows a 34-amendment package (Food for Peace among them) and one roll call win, Sen. Thune’s beef country-of-origin labeling, 17–6 (AFBF and NSAC recaps). Added the House loan caps ($3M and $3.5M, NALC) and folded the long Oct 1 and source sections.
Oct 15, 2026
Named the Senate bill and filled in the one-sided cells. The committee bill was reported Sep 24 as S. 5526 (govinfo). We now cite CRS R48918 as updated Jul 29 (House, Senate draft and current law). The Senate conservation cell now says the draft pays for part of its gains by cutting EQIP and CSP (CRS). The House column now says how its floor fights ended: the pesticide-labeling preemption was struck 280–142, and the Prop 12 fix stayed in. Added the next-90-days strip and a picker by type of operation; the twelve titles and the House line items now load on a button. The $15–17B aid figure is dated (January; $17.3B by June).
Oct 14, 2026
No floor vote before the midterms. The Senate adjourned Sep 30 and returns Nov 9; Boozman plans to work out a deal with the House and bring it to the floor after the election (Political Wire citing the Washington Post, Oct 1; Farm Policy News, Oct 2026; Agri-Pulse, Sep 28). Updated the status, tracker and holdups, added the lapsed dairy programs, and cut repeated copy.
Oct 6, 2026
The extension lapsed on Sep 30 and was not renewed: the stopgap funding law through Dec 11 does not extend the farm bill, and new CRP enrollment is paused (DTN, Oct 1; AgWeb). Rewrote the deadline copy in the past tense, added CRP to what stopped, and corrected three statements: the Jan 1, 2027 permanent-law fix is in both bills (this page said it was not), the 2025 crop-insurance changes are permanent rather than through 2031, and the “all other titles” share is 1.2%.
Sep 29, 2026
The Senate Agriculture Committee passed the Agricultural Act of 2026, 12–11, on Sep 16: Sen. Mitch McConnell returned from a months-long absence to cast the deciding vote. That clears committee; the bill still needs a full Senate floor vote (60 votes) and a conference with the House before it can reach the President. As of Sep 16, a floor vote before Congress's pre-midterm recess looked unlikely. Updated the status pills, tracker, TL;DR, FAQ, and holdups list to reflect the vote. Sources: Washington Post, AgWeb (both Sep 16, 2026).
Aug 16, 2026
Checked against the record; no change in the bill's status. Corrected six sentences on this page that were still written in the future tense about the Aug 6 markup, and added the Aug 6 entry that should have been here on the day.
Aug 6, 2026
Senate Ag Committee voted the Agricultural Act of 2026 down on party lines. Chairman Boozman recessed rather than adjourned and vowed another committee vote in September. On Aug 3 this page said the SNAP cost-share delay's effect would show up at the markup. It did not move a vote, and we called that one wrong.
Aug 3, 2026
Folded in the Aug 1 revised Senate text: year-round E15 now in the bill, SNAP state cost-share delayed a year, committee markup set for Aug 6. Added the "if you farm for a living" read.
Jul 14, 2026
Holdups refreshed: 60-vote math, the Moran hold, and the White House ad-hoc aid request.
Jun 23, 2026
Senate discussion draft added; House vs Senate side-by-side built.
Jun 20, 2026
Page launched: House bill, CBO score, and the $1.374T baseline by title.

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06 Questions, answered

Farm bill FAQ

Short answers, with sources.

What is the 2026 Farm Bill?
The 2026 Farm Bill is an omnibus bill that would reauthorize USDA farm, food, conservation, and rural programs for five years, fiscal 2027 through fiscal 2031. Two versions now exist: the House passed H.R. 7567 (the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026) on April 30, 2026, and the Senate Agriculture Committee passed its own version, the Agricultural Act of 2026 (branded Farm Bill 2.0), on September 16, 2026. It was reported to the Senate as S. 5526 on September 24.
Is the 2026 Farm Bill law?
No. The House passed its version in April and the Senate Agriculture Committee passed its version on September 16, but neither has been enacted. The Senate bill still needs a floor vote, then the two chambers need one bill. The extension of the 2018 farm bill expired September 30, 2026.
How much does the 2026 Farm Bill cost?
Programs carry a roughly $1.374 trillion ten-year baseline (FY2027–FY2036) under current law. Each bill's own effect on that baseline is small: the House bill scores close to budget-neutral, and the Senate bill, S. 5526, is also described as budget-neutral; we have not found a CBO score for it as of October 15.
Where does most farm bill money go?
Nutrition, mainly SNAP, is about 71.7% of the baseline. Four titles account for roughly 99% of the money: Nutrition, Crop Insurance, Commodities, and Conservation.
What does the Senate's Agricultural Act of 2026 change?
It raises USDA farm loan limits (guaranteed operating loans to $3 million, ownership to $3.5 million), raises conservation easement cost-share and adds new easement and state conservation programs, more than doubles Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development money, and writes rural broadband into law. The committee version also allows year-round E15 sales, delays the SNAP state cost-share by a year, and carries Sen. Thune’s beef country-of-origin labeling amendment, adopted 17-6 on August 6.
When did the current farm bill expire?
The extension of the 2018 farm bill expired September 30, 2026, and Congress has not passed another. The stopgap funding law through December 11 keeps the government funded but does not extend the farm bill. New CRP enrollment is paused, and without action permanent law begins to take effect January 1, 2027.
What happened when the farm bill lapsed on September 30, 2026?
Less than the headlines suggested, and the real deadline is later. Crop insurance runs on permanent statutory authority and does not lapse. ARC, PLC and reference prices were set by the 2025 reconciliation law (P.L. 119–21) through the 2031 crop year. SNAP continues as long as Congress appropriates for it. What actually stops are the programs reconciliation left without a budget baseline: Biobased Markets, Specialty Crop Block Grants, the Local Agriculture Market Program, Organic Agriculture Research and Extension, Animal Disease Prevention and Management, and Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach, plus new CRP enrollment, which FSA cannot approve without authority, and some small dairy programs. They resume when a bill or extension funds them. The date that matters more is January 1, 2027: the suspension of permanent law runs only through the 2026 crop year, reconciliation did not extend it, and without action the 1938 and 1949 Acts begin to take effect: dairy first, then wheat on June 1 and corn on October 1. Source: CRS R48775.
What's the difference between the House and Senate bills?
Both use the same twelve titles and build on the 2025 reconciliation law. The House bill cuts EQIP by $786 million and moves it to other conservation programs; the Senate bill cuts EQIP and CSP to pay for easements and two new conservation programs, and adds year-round E15. The House bill has a CBO score; we have not found one for S. 5526.
What is holding the farm bill up right now?
Sixty votes on the Senate floor, which Republicans cannot reach alone, and then a deal with the House. The main fight is SNAP: Democrats want a two-year delay in the state cost-share; the bill has one. The Senate returns November 9.
Does the Senate bill change late planting rules?
Only in a pilot: S. 5526 would drop the late planting guarantee cut in at least 4 Texas Panhandle counties. Everywhere else stays the same, and the bill is not law.

I built this because every "farm bill" explainer I could find was either a 200-page CRS PDF or a press release. Every number here carries a source and a date. The update log above shows every revision, including the ones where this page called it wrong.

Sources CRS, CBO, the bill text, the committee, roll calls, and the reporting behind each date.

Congressional Research Service, R48918: The 2026 Farm Bill: Comparison of the House and Senate Bills with Current Law (updated Jul 29, 2026; it compares the House-passed bill with the discussion draft the Senate chairman released June 23, not the reported S. 5526) · Congressional Budget Office, Cost Estimate for H.R. 7567 (Apr 24, 2026) · CBO February 2026 baseline · U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Agricultural Act of 2026 (Farm Bill 2.0): title summaries and section-by-section (Jun 23, 2026) · July–August 2026 status reporting: National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition draft analysis; Civil Eats (Jun 23); Pro Farmer policy update (Aug 1, 2026) on the revised Senate text, E15, SNAP cost-share delay, and the Aug 6 markup; DTN (Aug 2, 2026) on markup timing ahead of the Senate recess · Washington Post (Sep 16, 2026) and AgWeb (Sep 16, 2026) on the committee's 12–11 vote and next steps · S. 5526, reported in the Senate (Sep 24, 2026) · House roll call 148 (Apr 30, 2026) on the pesticide-labeling amendment and House Rules Committee record vote 291 on the Prop 12 amendment · FSA (Sep 30, 2026) on 2027 DMC signup · DTN (Jun 24, 2026) on the $17.3B aid figure. Aug 6 markup votes: NSAC and AFBF recaps · House loan caps: National Agricultural Law Center. Baseline figures are 10-year mandatory outlays, FY2027–FY2036.

Last updated October 16, 2026 · status: extension lapsed Sep 30; House-passed; Senate Agriculture Committee passed its version 12–11 on Sep 16; Senate out until Nov 9; floor vote and House-Senate deal still ahead

This page summarizes a House-passed bill (H.R. 7567) and a Senate committee-passed bill (S. 5526), neither of which is law. Figures are CBO/CRS estimates for the House bill and will change as the full Senate takes up its version and the two chambers reconcile. Nothing here is legislative, legal, or financial advice. AGSIST is an independent farm markets website and is not affiliated with any government body.

Written and maintained by Sigurd Lindquist, CCA in Wisconsin. Corrections and arguments welcome: sig@agsist.com · 715-797-2428.

Citing this page? Attribution: AGSIST 2026 Farm Bill Tracker, https://agsist.com/farm-bill. Available at no charge for non-commercial use; a link back keeps it that way. Not affiliated with or endorsed by USDA, CBO, CRS or any committee of Congress.