Page 6 2026 Fall Farm Outlook Lincoln Daily News Oct 2026 House and Senate: Two Bills on Agriculture On April 30, 2026, the United States House of Representatives passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (FFNSA 2026). The Senate is working on a farm bill as well, which they refer to as either the Agriculture Act of 2026 or Farm Bill 2.0. While the second is still a draft and has not been passed yet, both the House and Senate are trying to do the same thing: update the current 2018 Farm Bill. What is the 2018 Farm Bill? This bill is a set of laws passed about once every five years. According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the bill “has a tremendous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and what kinds of foods are grown.” The 2018 Farm Bill is broken up into 11 parts called titles. These titles cover commodities, conservation, nutrition, credit, rural development, research, extension and related matters, forestry, energy, horticulture, crop insurance, and miscellaneous. Why are the House and the Senate working on new bills? Farm bills are updated about once every five years. The provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill were set to end on September 30, 2023. Through resolutions, the provisions of the bill were extended through September 30, 2026. That was nearly a month ago, and the bill was not extended any further as of this article. Rather, the Senate and House are trying to work on new legislation that would act as a new version of the 2018 Farm Bill. Why did both chambers of Congress start working on their own version of what amounts to the same outcome? While it may sound counterintuitive, this is actually part of the legislative process. Both chambers of Congress will make their own versions of a farm bill and pass them. They will then negotiate a final draft of the bill with parts of each of their own draft bills.
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