SALEM, Ohio — The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry released its long-awaited draft farm bill on June 23 that ups loan payments for farmers and expands funding for farm and conservation programs.
The last Farm Bill was passed in 2018 and has been extended three times since it expired in 2023, leaving many farm policies outdated and farmers underfunded.
The Senate draft Farm Bill follows the House’s Farm, Food and National Security Act passed on April 30 in a 224-to-220 vote; the Senate has not yet scheduled a hearing on this legislation.
Unlike the House, the Senate version cuts the Save Our Bacon Act, a provision that would prohibit states from establishing livestock production standards beyond their borders.
Excludes house provisions
The Senate excluded a provision that would overturn California’s Prop 12 — passed in 2018 — and similar laws that require strict animal welfare and confinement standards on pork, veal and shell egg products sold in the state.
“If enacted, this sweeping preemption could jeopardize years of hard-won state-level protections for farmed animals,” the Animal Legal Defense Fund said, in a statement.
While some support the exclusion, others, including the American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, find the act necessary to “protecting interstate commerce from a patchwork of state laws,” he said, in a statement.
Since Prop 12 has been enacted, the National Pork Producers Council has advocated for legislative reform through the Save Our Bacon Act.
“Prop 12 is creating an unpredictable, unavoidable wave of conflicting state laws and uncertainty — and farmers are the ones left to drown in its wake,” said NPPC, in a statement.
Duvall and the National Farmers Union also expressed disappointment after the draft omitted approving the sale of E15 blended fuel year-round. However, Duvall notes he is hopeful that E15 standards will be established, as it has received support from both President Donald Trump and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
“We urge the Senate to quickly pass a bipartisan farm bill, and with the same sense of urgency, Congress must work together to address these additional priorities. It’s time to deliver solutions to America’s farmers and ranchers,” Duvall said, in a statement.
Loan changes
The Senate draft makes changes to loan payments, including increasing loan payments through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program, a yearly rental payment given to farmers who remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production.
The payment increases from $50,000 to $125,000 — the first increase in the program’s history — extends CPR acreage for hay and grazing use for “emergency responses to drought, flooding and other natural disasters” and reauthorizes the program through 2031.
The bill also requires the USDA to continue servicing marketing assistance loans, sugar processing loans and loan deficiency payments during a government shutdown. Producers were left hanging during the latest 43-day government shutdown last fall.
Farm ownership loans were increased to an allowable indebtedness of $850,000 and up to $3.5 million, starting in fiscal year 2027. Farm operating loans rose to an allowable indebtedness of $750,000 and up to $3 million in fiscal year 2027.
Precision agriculture and precision agriculture technology would be eligible for the Conservation Loan and Loan Guarantee Program as well.
Funding for programs
The Senate bill designates more funding for several research and conservation programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, CPR and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, and sets aside new funding for the Forest Conservation Easement Program.
Several dairy programs were extended, including the Dairy Indemnity Payment Program and the Dairy Promotion and Research Board, through 2031.
The bill also allows third-party (non-federal) providers to become certified technical service providers by the Secretary of the USDA, a non-federal certifying entity or state agency, for the purpose of providing timely technical assistance for conservation programs — a new provision that has received support from both the American Soybean Association and the National Milk Producers Federation.
Fertilizer is another highlight of the bill: the USDA would hire a full-time Crop Input Economist to collect data and research on crop input markets, and require the agency to produce a report on the U.S. fertilizer industry.
“We appreciate Chairman Boozman and the Senate Agriculture Committee for developing a framework that recognizes the challenges facing agriculture and includes several priorities important to U.S. soybean producers,” said ASA President Scott Metzger of Ohio, which includes expanded fertilizer research, technical assistance and precision agriculture technology.
The draft farm bill now moves on to the Senate Agriculture Committee, set to be reviewed after the Fourth of July recess and before the August break, which starts Aug. 7.
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
