800 326 9054The new year is a week old and the window for Congress to tackle pressing U.S. agriculture legislation is already rapidly narrowing.
The logistics federal lawmakers face in taking up key ag and food issues, most notably a new five-year farm bill, are challenging right out of the gate given the 2026 midterm elections in November that will preoccupy the House and at least a third of the Senate. There is also the question of how big the political appetite will be to revisit last year’s partisan fights over nutrition assistance.
Republicans will have trouble getting anything through the House, where their thin majority got even tighter this week with the death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California and the retirement of Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. As of Wednesday, the GOP controls the House 218-213, with one Republican, Jim Baird of Indiana, hospitalized after a car accident.
Then there are potentially major distractions for lawmakers, like the potential foro another government shutdown later this month, and U.S. military action in Venezuela.
The busy backdrop collides with a $1.5 trillion American ag and food industry at a critical crossroad. Growers of soybeans, corn and other key crops need new domestic and global markets to boost demand, a quandary underscored by President Donald Trump’s tariff wars that contributed to the administration announcing $12 billion in aid. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson has already said at least $10 billion more will be needed from Congress to help a wider range of struggling ag sectors, including dairy.
Asked about top priorities for 2026, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., chair of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee and a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said more sales of U.S. ag products are what’s needed right now.
“The No. 1 thing now that would really help move the needle is that we get more sales going,” Hoeven told Agri-Pulse.
Here’s a look at key ag issues in 2026:
Biofuels
A slump in farm income for U.S. crop growers, coupled with a surge in production costs that has triggered a Trump administration query into the higher prices for inputs like fertilizer, is causing more ag groups to get louder in pushing Washington to help pave the way for new and expanded markets for renewable fuels. At the top of the legislative wish list for 2026 is the longtime push for year-round, nationwide sales of higher blends of corn-based ethanol.
Wider retail sales of a mix of 15% ethanol and motor gasoline, versus the standard 10% now, is seen as crucial to the future of not just the biofuel but also corn, the biggest U.S. crop, more than a third of which is used each year to make ethanol. While E15 legislation from Sen. Debra Fischer, R-Neb., has gained broader acceptance in recent years, including from the powerful American Petroleum Institute, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who aren’t fans of government subsidies for such fuels remain a challenge.
The goal of Fischer and other farm-state lawmakers is to attach the E15 bill onto unrelated legislation that is considered a “must pass” measure. The first chance to do so could be this month as Congress tries to avert another government shutdown by approving full-year funding or a stopgap solution by Jan. 30.
Other biofuel efforts in the current Congress include a temporary return of the $1-a-gallon biodiesel blenders’ tax credit to smooth over the transition to a new incentive, known as 45Z, that still lacks regulatory clarity. There’s also a push among some for a new law that would provide more certainty on how exemptions for some small oil refineries are handled under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
Farm bill
Comprehensive, five-year legislation covering crucial farm safety net programs, federal nutrition assistance and other key provisions hasn’t been passed since 2018, with lawmakers instead advancing a series of extensions and piecemeal measures.
Senate Agriculture Committee John Boozman, R-Ark., and House Ag Chair Thompson are expected to take up legislation as soon as this month to deal with items not addressed in last year’s passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill. The tax law included updates to row crop insurance and reference pricing. It also made steep cuts to federal nutrition aid that led to intensified rancor between Republicans backing the measure and Democrats opposing it. Farm bill provisions still not updated since 2018 include funding for the Conservation Reserve Program, an initiative under USDA’s Farm Service Agency.
Other outstanding matters include organic farming and a potential response to Prop 12, the 2018 California livestock law that pork producers and other ag groups seek to overturn.
“There are some things that are low-hanging fruit in a farm bill that we can get done for people using FSA loans,” John Newton, vice president of public policy and economic analysis for the American Farm Bureau Federation, told Agri-Pulse.
“Those loan limits haven’t been adjusted since 2018 and inflation has gone through the roof,” said Newton, a former chief economist for the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Meanwhile, some ag policy watchers say the era of five-year, comprehensive ag legislation may be over for the foreseeable future.
Non-governmental organizations, or nonprofits focused on ag and food issues, are starting to say “the idea of a farm bill is just really not sustainable anymore,” Callie Eideberg, a principal and ag and environmental expert at the Vogel Group, told Agri-Pulse. The process is “clearly breaking down.”
Randy Russell, president and CEO of the Russell Group, a bipartisan firm focused on ag and food public policy, noted that that political divisions over farm legislation became apparent around 2012.
“That crack has only widened,” Russell told Agri-Pulse last month. “I’m not sure we’ll see another farm bill, as we have seen it traditionally in the rest of my career, and I’m not planning on retiring.”
Food safety, MAHA
A recently formed coalition that includes some of the world’s largest food manufacturers wants Congress to pass legislation that would set national labeling standards for food additives and other ingredients.
The coalition is seeking both front-of-pack labeling and QR Code reform, as well as legislative changes to FDA’s Generally Recognized as Safe process.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said late last year that he was open to a national solution “to this patchwork of state laws,” Russell said. “That’s very significant.”
“We want to work with the administration to lock in some of the MAHA gains that they’ve had at the state level, but do it in a way that’s on a national basis and not at the state level, where there are differences about how they’re going about this,” he said.
Meanwhile, legislation is expected to be introduced in the House early this year that would serve as a companion to a Senate measure that seeks to bolster Food and Drug Administration oversight of ingredient disclosures and require food companies to report ingredients within their food supply to the agency.
The Senate bill unveiled in November by Roger Marshall, R-Kan., follows similar laws established in states including Texas, California and Arkansas.
Democrats urge oversight
On Tuesday, Democratic Reps. Angie Craig and Shontel Brown on House Ag urged Thompson to hold oversight hearings on issues including the impact of Medicaid cuts and expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits on rural health care; the repercussions of Trump’s trade policies on U.S. agriculture; and a look at whether farmers will need more economic aid and/or changes in federal safety net programs.
Craig, ranking member of the committee, is running for a Senate seat in Minnesota this year. Brown, of Ohio, is the ag panel’s vice ranking member.
“Administration actions and other events that have created challenges for American agriculture have been ignored entirely by the committee, the lawmakers said in a Jan. 6 letter to Thompson. “These range from President Trump’s trade war with the world to the Department of Agriculture’s reorganization plan to animal disease outbreaks both here and close to home.”
*Sourced from Agri-Pulse.