Senate Agriculture Committee Advances 2026 Farm Bill

September 16, 2026

The Senate Agriculture Committee advanced its version of the 2026 Farm Bill Wednesday, sending the legislation to the full Senate and marking the latest step in a lengthy effort to reauthorize the Farm Bill.

The committee voted 12-11 to advance the legislation along party lines. There were no amendments offered and no changes made to the legislation during Wednesday’s committee action.

The vote comes several weeks after the committee failed to advance the Farm Bill before the August recess. During that markup, Democrats voted against the Republican-led package amid disagreements over changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The legislation failed at that time on a 10-11 vote. Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama were absent for the final vote.

National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles said the return of those senators changed the outcome when the committee reconvened Wednesday.

National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles said the return of those senators changed the outcome when the committee reconvened Wednesday.

“Senator McConnell has returned to the Senate. Senator Tuberville was there today and they were able to, on a pure party-line vote, just a few minutes ago, report their version of the Farm Bill out of the Senate Agriculture Committee and send it to the Senate floor,” Quarles said. “So, that's another step in what has been a very long process to finally get a Farm Bill reauthorized.”

While advancing the legislation out of committee represents progress, the Farm Bill still faces significant work in Congress.

Quarles said lawmakers will ultimately need to find bipartisan support to move the legislation through the full Senate.

“There just aren't that many days between now and the election to put a Farm Bill on the Senate floor,” Quarles said. “You obviously have to get 60 votes in order to move a Farm Bill on the Senate floor. And at this time, without that bipartisan agreement, it doesn't look like those 60 votes are there.”

With the November election approaching and the number of remaining legislative days shrinking, Quarles said action on the Farm Bill could ultimately come during a lame-duck session of Congress following the election.

“I think all of this is setting up very likely for some type of action post-election,” Quarles said. “We're probably looking at what they call a lame-duck session of Congress.”

Another possibility, according to Quarles, would be incorporating a negotiated Farm Bill into a larger piece of must-pass legislation before the end of the year.

“It's very likely that you're not going to have a Farm Bill move on its own all the way to enactment,” Quarles said. “It could very well get inserted into a larger, what we call a must-pass piece of legislation.”

Under that scenario, negotiations among House and Senate agriculture committee leaders could determine the final Farm Bill provisions, which could then be incorporated into a broader legislative package.

For the nation's potato growers, Quarles said the National Potato Council's primary goal remains completing the Farm Bill and securing provisions important to specialty crop producers.

“We need the bill enacted into law. That's the first thing. We've got to have a reauthorized Farm Bill,” Quarles said.

Among NPC's priorities are improvements to risk-management programs and ensuring specialty crop producers have access to agricultural economic assistance.

“The things that we've been really focused on is improving risk-management tools for producers, making sure that in the unfortunate circumstances we're in right now where economic relief is such a big deal for this industry, making sure that when USDA is delivering economic relief to agriculture in total, that specialty crops have the same access to those relief funds that our Title One, our program crop friends have,” Quarles said.

Quarles said NPC also wants the Senate legislation to contain provisions similar to those included in the House Farm Bill addressing those priorities.

“We want to make sure that the Senate version has very similar pieces of legislation, provisions in this legislation, to address those issues to make it that much easier,” Quarles said.

The House has already passed its version of the Farm Bill. The Senate legislation must now move through the full Senate before lawmakers can resolve differences between the two chambers and send a final package to the president.

The current Farm Bill extension is set to expire September 30, adding additional pressure for congressional action.

Source: Western Ag Network