Senate Committee Approves 2026 Agriculture Appropriations Act

Washington, D.C. — The Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Related Agencies Appropriations Act on July 10. The measure, approved by a unanimous vote of 27-0, provides $27.1 billion in discretionary funding to agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the goal of investing in America’s rural communities, supporting farmers and ranchers, keeping the U.S. food supply secure and maintaining nutritional support for low-income American families. 

“This important bill supports our farmers and rural communities, the safety of our food supply, critical federal nutrition programs and medical research and advancements,” said Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), chair of the appropriations committee. “This bill also provides much needed investments in rural housing programs to help address severe affordable housing shortage felt in Maine and states across the country. As the chair of the appropriations committee, I will continue to champion this funding as the appropriations process moves forward.”

Bill Highlights.

Agriculture Research. The bill includes $3.6 billion for agricultural research programs, including $1.9 billion for the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and $1.7 billion for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which includes $445 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, a competitive grants program for agricultural sciences.

The bill fully funds the USDA’s National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility to protect the U.S. agricultural economy.

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The bill directs $1.2 billion to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to protect the nation’s animal and plant resources from diseases and pests such as chronic wasting disease, New World screwworm and avian influenza, also known as bird flu. 

The bill provides resources to assist ranchers with the cost of electronic identification (EID) tags to comply with animal disease traceability requirements.

Agricultural Marketing Service. The bill denotes $223 million for USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to facilitate the marketing of U.S. agricultural products, both domestically and internationally, support domestic commodity purchase programs to support agricultural producers and provide and market data to help producers make informed business decisions. 

The bill also “closes the hemp loophole” that has allowed hemp products to be sold across the country, said the House Appropriations Committee. New language in the bill redefines the statuary definition of hemp to restrict the production, sale and distribution of certain hemp-derived cannabinoid products.

Food Safety and Inspection Service. The bill directs $1.2 billion to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to promote the safety and productivity of the nation’s $186 billion meat and poultry industry by supporting nearly 8,000 frontline inspection personnel for meat, poultry and egg products at more than 6,800 facilities in the U.S. 

This includes an additional $15 million for the State Meat and Poultry Inspection and Cooperative Interstate Shipment Programs.

Farm Service Agency: $1.6 billion will be given to the Farm Service Agency (FSA), including funding to support $10.5 billion of farm loans to ensure producers have access to necessary capital. 

The bill continues the prohibition on FSA county office closures and provides resources to improve the tracking system of foreign-owned land.

Conservation. $895 million will be directed to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service for technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers, including $52 million for watershed and flood prevention operations. The bill decreases funding for the Office of Urban Agriculture.

Rural Development. $3.7 billion will support rural development programs across the U.S., including $1.7 billion for affordable housing rental assistance for low-income families and seniors in rural communities; $1 billion in lending authority for single-family housing direct loans and $25 billion in lending authority for the guaranteed single-family housing loans; $1.3 billion for rural water and waste grants and loans; $1.8 billion in grants and loans for rural business and industry programs that promote small business growth in rural areas; $8 billion in lending authority for rural electric loans; and $96 million for rural broadband grants and loans. 

The bill eliminates funding for the Rural Partners Network initiative, a network of federal agencies and commissions working with rural communities to expand rural economic development.

It maintains “Buy American” provisions that maximize the federal government’s use domestic products.

Nutrition. The bill denotes $8.2 billion for the USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to ensure that low-income mothers and their babies have access to healthy, nutritious foods, plus $425 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program to assist low-income seniors.

International Food Assistance. $1.5 billion will be directed to Food for Peace Title II grants, which provide food assistance to vulnerable populations worldwide, and $240 million for the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program, which supports education, child development and food security in low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe. 

The bill requires a report outlining the process and agency needs to support a transfer of the Food for Peace program from the U.S. Agency for International Development to the Foreign Agricultural Service.

FDA. The bill directs $3.6 billion for the FDA, including increases for food safety and inspections, cosmetics, diabetes and the neurology drug program, as well as a pilot grant program to help schools transition to safer, healthier foods.

Senator John Hoeven (R-ND), chair of the Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, said, “Our farmers and ranchers provide the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the world, and this legislation makes important investments to ensure they can continue this good work. As chairman of Agriculture Appropriations, we made it a priority to support our nation’s producers with tools like better access to capital, marketing assistance and funding to prevent pest and disease like the avian flu and chronic wasting disease. At the same time, we invest in agriculture research, food safety and other programs to strengthen rural America.”