Other Ag News: Release: Congress Sends Reconciliation Bill to President’s Desk, Cannibalizing American Food and Farm System

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mike Lavender

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

mlavender@sustainableagriculture.net 

Tel. 734.417.8710

Release: Congress Sends Reconciliation Bill to President’s Desk, Cannibalizing American Food and Farm System

Washington, DC, July 3, 2025 –– The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) issued the following comment, attributable to Mike Lavender, NSAC Policy Director, following the House of Representatives’ 218-214 approval of the Senate’s budget reconciliation legislation. The House vote sends the legislation to the President’s desk, where it will be signed into law.

“We don’t need to wait for history to accurately judge this legislation. The bill’s vision for America is one where it’s ok to spite your neighbor if it puts you ahead. The passage of this bill is the moment when elected officials decided that taking food off the plate of hungry children, seniors, and veterans was an acceptable price to pay to further increase farm subsidies to the largest, wealthiest farmers, while programs that support the vast majority of farmers and rural communities are left to languish. Make no mistake, a vote for this bill was not a vote for all of our country’s farmers or the communities they call home – it’s a vote to further enrich the wealthiest few and abandon everyone else.

Every day NSAC works toward a future where farmers, workers, and communities sustain a thriving food and farm system that nourishes people, stewards our environment, and builds dynamic economies. This bill is a monumental setback on the journey toward that vision — but today, NSAC is more determined than ever to keep fighting for it.”

The final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) has, in some ways, changed substantially from the initial versions. However, the farm provisions of the bill have been relatively unchanged and closely resemble those in the original House-passed budget reconciliation bill. The following are select provisions of the final budget reconciliation bill based on NSAC’s initial analysis:

• Slashes hundreds of billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), exacerbating hunger and shifting the financial burden of implementing a federal nutrition benefit to states.
• Dramatically raises subsidies for commodity production, including a 10 to 20 percent increase to Price Loss Coverage program reference prices and a bump to revenue guarantees under the Agriculture Risk Coverage program, increasing payments to a small number of American farmers while leaving the vast majority of growers without updated help.
• Eviscerates existing payment limits and Adjusted Gross Income means tests through exemptions and adjustments for inflation, opening the gates to more taxpayer subsidies for millionaires and absentee landowners.
• Undermines Congress’s ability to pass a full, fair farm bill under normal order that would serve the diversity of American agriculture and food systems.

While the bill overall will do untold harm, we note two small positive provisions that reflect opportunities to build on in the future: 

• Rescinds unobligated Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds for the Conservation Stewardship Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, building them into the farm bill baseline. However, the rescission of IRA conservation funding and the increase of farm bill conservation funding removes targeting for popular practices that help farmers deal with the impacts of climate change, including increasingly unpredictable and disruptive weather events.
• Reauthorizes and provides funding for some “stranded” farm bill programs, including Scholarships for 1890s, National Organic Cost-Share, and the Organic Production and Market Data Initiative.

Stay tuned to the NSAC blog for a deep-dive analysis during the week of July 7.

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