By Colton Fagundes
After years of delay, Congress is once again trying to move a new Farm Bill. On August 6, the Senate Agriculture Committee began marking up Chairman John Boozman’s farm bill proposal, The Agricultural Act of 2026. The Farm Bill – which last passed in 2018, expired in September 2023, and Congress has temporarily extended multiple times – is a package of legislation reauthorized roughly every five years that shapes almost every aspect of federal agricultural policy.
This is the furthest the Senate has progressed this Farm Bill cycle. However, the committee ultimately did not advance the bill, leaving open the possibility of returning to negotiations after the August recess. The House Agriculture Committee passed their Farm Bill out of markup earlier this year. If the Senate advances their markup out of committee, both houses would then need to hold a full vote to approve the respective versions, which would then go to a “conference committee” to reconcile the differences.
The timing was fitting for CalCAN. The markup unfolded during the final day of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s (NSAC) annual Summer Meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where CalCAN and other NSAC members were gathered. Between meeting sessions, NSAC staff and coalition members were analyzing amendments, comparing priorities, and communicating with congressional offices in real time.
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