On April 30, the House of Representatives passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, moving the nation and rural communities one step closer to a new Farm Bill.
The bill was passed by a vote of 224-200. Fourteen Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the bill, with three Republicans voting against it. Unlike the vote that took place on March 5, which was limited to members of the House Agriculture Committee, last week’s vote was made by all members of the House.
Last week during a visit to Lake Benton as part of her southwest Minnesota rural economy tour of regional small businesses, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told Above The Fold Publishing that she would love nothing more than to get the Farm Bill done.
“We do want to have some negotiations before we get it done,” the Democratic senator said. “We do have to have some negotiations on the Senate side about this SNAP cost shifts, because the whole Midwest just got really hard by the way it was done. What happened was the low-error states are getting hit, but the higherror states like New York, Maryland, New Jersey all got off scot-free in state shifts. New York, because they have a high error rate, gets a billion dollars a year, while in Minnesota is paying hundreds of millions a year.”
The recent debate largely focused on an amendment to remove a provision that would protect pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits related to health risks. Additionally, lawmakers debated whether or no t the vote should include a measure to allow for year-round sales of E-15 fuel. The pesticide language was removed by a vote of 280-142, while a vote on E-15 legislation was bumped to May 13.
The House vote reflects the most progress Congress has made toward passage of a new farm bill since the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 expired in 2023. Now attention will turn to the Senate, where the Senate Committee on Agriculture has yet to release its own version of the bill.
Once passed by the full Senate, the two versions must be conferenced and approved again by both chambers before proceeding to the president’s desk and becoming law.
Klobuchar’s goal is to make SNAP more fair between states. That, she said, could lead to smaller cuts in federal programs.
“I think there’s some good things in (the proposed Farm Bill), and if we can resolve this and get to a better place on that, then we can get it done.”
The current Farm Bill extension is set to expire on Sept. 30.
