Farm bill extension runs out September 30 and the Senate bill is still stuck in committee

The current farm bill extension expires September 30. With the Senate back in session, the Agriculture Committee has three weeks to do what it could not do in August: get a bill out of committee.

Where things stand

The House passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R. 7567) on a 224-200 vote, the first time a farm bill has cleared the House floor since 2018.

Senate Ag Chairman John Boozman released his Agricultural Act of 2026 on July 31 and brought it to markup on August 6. The committee adopted a bipartisan package of 34 amendments by voice vote, then stalled over the SNAP state cost share, the provision that shifts part of the nutrition benefit cost onto states. Boozman recessed the committee rather than take a vote he would lose, with the intent of returning to it in September.

What is in the bills for livestock producers

The two chambers' bills are closer than the headlines suggest. Provisions of interest to cattle, hog, and poultry producers:

• Disaster coverage. State block grants for uncovered livestock, poultry, crop, and tree losses, a way to get money moving for the events that fall between LIP, ELAP, and crop insurance.
• Crop insurance. Expanded revenue-loss coverage beyond natural disasters, plus a Specialty Crop Advisory Committee.
• E15. Permanent, nationwide year-round E15 authorization, which matters more for corn demand than for cattle directly.
• SNAP. A one-year delay in the state cost-share from the earlier reconciliation law, plus permanent authorization for online purchasing. This is the piece holding everything up.

The Congressional Research Service has a side-by-side of both bills against current law (report R48918) if you want the full detail.

What happens on October 1

If nothing passes, the programs do not vanish overnight. Crop insurance is permanently authorized. Commodity programs like ARC and PLC run through the 2026 crop year. The real cliff is dairy and the so-called permanent law provisions, which revert to 1940s-era parity pricing if Congress lets the extension lapse without another patch. That has never actually been allowed to happen; Congress has passed short extensions each time.

The likely outcomes, in rough order of probability: another short extension, a committee vote that produces a Senate bill for floor time later this fall, or a lapse of a few weeks that gets papered over. Farm Bureau is pushing hard for the second option. We will update this thread as the committee schedules its return.