By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

Although the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry failed to pass the farm bill Aug. 6, committee members will have another chance to move the food and farm legislation forward when the Senate returns from its five-week recess in September.

“The work isn’t over. The challenges facing farm country haven’t let up. I think the committee remains committed to working with anyone who’s serious about getting a bipartisan farm bill across the finish line,” Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) said.

Boozman left the committee in recess rather than closing it out after the committee failed to pass the farm bill, giving him an opportunity to call the bill back up for another vote.

“We’re going to vote on it again and see if we can just push this thing over the finish line,” Boozman said.

The Senate’s version of the farm bill, The Agricultural Act of 2026, fell in a 10-11 party line vote. Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) were not present for the vote.

Boozman said he was “deeply disappointed” the vote failed as it blocked critical legislation that supports America’s farmers, ranchers and foresters.

“The reality is that there’s not a lot of time left in the legislative calendar,” Boozman said. “We’ll come back and have about three weeks, which is not very much time to get a farm bill passed, conferenced, and then passed again. This was our best chance to push the farm bill forward for final passage this year.”

Following the 10-11 vote, many agricultural organizations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and Texas Farm Bureau (TFB), expressed disappointment and frustration with the process.

Boozman told reporters, including the TFB Radio Network, he’s also frustrated.

“I don’t blame them one bit. I would feel let down, too, in the sense that I know how difficult it is. Unless you’re in livestock, if you’re growing something, you’re losing money,” Boozman said. “They tell us that if we’re not careful, and this is both the farmers and our lenders, that we’re going to lose a lot of farmers in the next two or three years because of financial problems.”

The chairman said voters should encourage their member of Congress, even if they’re not on the Senate Ag Committee, to support the farm bill when it comes up for a vote.

“They need to take their frustrations out by calling the members that represent them and say, ‘What’s the deal?’” Boozman said. “The good news in Texas is we don’t have to worry about Sen. (Ted) Cruz. We don’t have to worry about Sen. (John) Cornyn. They’ll be more than supportive, and I think that goes for the vast majority of the Texas delegation.”

Boozman’s farm bill draft builds on the updates to Title 1 commodity programs included in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. It also reportedly improves accessibility and eligibility for existing commodity, dairy and standing disaster programs.

The bill featured year-round E15 and increases to credit and loan limits.

“The loan limits, the tools they use for credit, was based on the 2018 Farm Bill. That was based on 2012 data,” Boozman said. “The world is totally different now. We’ve updated the loan limits so now they can buy the equipment and various things they need because the loan limits are so low and the items have gone up so much.”

The draft legislation expands programs and support for risk management tools for specialty crop growers.

“We’ve done a tremendous amount for the specialty crops, and this is something that’s really important to me. Agriculture works together, and I’d very much like to get all of our crops in a better position,” Boozman said. “If you look at the data, probably in the last 20-25 years, we’ve lost about 80% of our specialty crops. We are working really hard with the various entities that represent them and individual farmers to see how we can help them find a place forward.”

Following the farm bill vote, Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told the committee democrats opposed the bill because it included a single year delay in the cost share for states for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) rather than the two-year delay they sought.

“We simply are asking for two years, which by the way, is only 10% of the total SNAP cuts made in the Big, Beautiful Bill,” Klobuchar said. “We are really focused on making this bill better, and we would like to get this done for rural America, as well as for the country.”

Klobuchar and Boozman both said they are committed to working together to get a farm bill passed.

“There are good things in it for our farmers and ranchers, including year-round E15, a provision I have long led on,” Klobuchar said. “As noted by the chairman, the Agriculture Committee meeting remains open for further discussions on this bill.”

More than 200 amendments were initially offered on the farm bill.

The Senate returns to Washington, D.C. the week of Sept. 14, tentatively slating a new markup of the farm bill for Sept. 15.

The House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the farm bill, The Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026, in a 34-17 vote March 5.

The legislation passed the House of Representatives in a 224-200 vote April 30.

If the Senate Ag Committee passes its draft farm bill, the legislation would then move on to the Senate floor for a full chamber vote.

If passed there, the House and Senate farm bills would then have to be conferenced into a single bill.