Senate Agriculture Committee releases draft Farm Bill

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry released a 900-page draft Farm Bill, entitled the Agricultural Act of 2026, on June 23, 2026. This follows the April 30 passage of the House’s version of the Farm Bill, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026.

With the midterm elections coming, time is running out for Congress to finalize a Farm Bill. The last Farm Bill expired in 2023, and Congress has since issued some extensions and reauthorized other programs through the One Big Beautiful Bill, but the need for a full, final Farm Bill remains.

The Senate’s draft bill would reauthorize the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), increasing the program’s payment limitation for the first time in the program’s history to $125,000. CRP provides both financial and technical assistance to landowners who remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant approved species that will improve environmental quality.

The draft bill also maintains the requirement that 10% of funding through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program go to wildlife practices. Like the House bill, the draft Senate bill includes a new Forest Conservation Easement Program, replacing the repealed Healthy Forests Reserve Program, as well as permanently authorizing what is now the feral swine eradication and control pilot program, with $150 million in mandatory funding over the next five years.

The draft bill would cut over $1.9 billion from the next five years of the Environmental Quality Incentive Program’s (EQIP) budget and $500 million permanently from the Conservation Stewardship Program’s. In comparison, the House bill would reduce EQIP funding by about $1 billion over the next five years. The funding cut from these programs would be used to pay for the new Forest Conservation Easement Program, as well as funding increases in other conservation programs.

The Senate Agriculture Committee has not set a date to formally consider the draft bill. For the draft Senate bill to pass out of the Agriculture Committee and through the full Senate, the bill’s Republican proponents will need to secure support of Democrats, who remain concerned about the bill’s approach to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as Food Stamps). With the midterm elections approaching, time for votes on the Senate floor is limited, which could also be a challenge for the bill’s champions. If a Senate bill is successful, the differences between that bill and the House bill will need to be ironed out before a final bill can go into effect.