The Farm Bill After FY2025 Budget Reconciliation: Frequently Asked Questions

For nearly a century, Congress has passed farm bills, which are omnibus, multiyear laws that govern an array of agricultural and food programs. Farm bills have grown in size and scope in recent decades. Enactment of omnibus farm bills has provided opportunities for policymakers to periodically address a broad range of agricultural and food issues about every five years. The most recent farm bill, the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 farm bill; P.L. 115-334), expired in 2023. It was extended three times for a year at a time: in November 2023 to cover FY2024 and crop year 2024 (P.L. 118-22, Division B, §102), in December 2024 to cover FY2025 and crop year 2025 (P.L. 118-158, Division D, §4101), and in November 2025 to cover FY2026 and crop year 2026 (P.L. 119-37, Division E, §5002). Farm bill program authorizations and funding sources come in various combinations. Some farm bill programs are authorized for specific time periods and have expiration dates, such as the end of a fiscal year or a crop year (year in which a crop is harvested). Other farm bill programs are authorized without an expiration date, and their implementation depends on funding availability. Some programs are funded with mandatory funding provided by the farm bill, whereas implementation of other programs is dependent on Congress providing mandatory or discretionary appropriations after the farm bill’s enactment. Considerations of these differences affect the debate for program reauthorization and the consequences of expiration. In July 2025, Title I of the FY2025 budget reconciliation law (P.L. 119-21, sometimes referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) amended select provisions of the 2018 farm bill. It did not reauthorize all expired or expiring programs or authorizations of the 2018 farm bill. The reconciliation law included some changes to mandatory spending programs. Budget reconciliation rules did not allow many of the policy changes for some mandatory spending programs, and particularly for discretionary spending programs, that are usually in a farm bill. P.L. 119-21 included increases to and extensions of the farm commodity programs, reductions to but not necessarily reauthorization of nutrition assistance programs (particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP), and changes to funding for conservation programs using funding from the act known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA, P.L. 117-169). The reconciliation law also increased funding for some relatively smaller programs related to agricultural trade promotion, research, energy, and horticulture and rescinded IRA funding for forestry. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the agriculture title (Title I) of P.L. 119-21 will reduce federal outlays by $121 billion over 10 years (FY2025-FY2034), comprised primarily of changes in the nutrition subtitle that will reduce outlays by $187 billion and changes to other subtitles for agriculture provisions that will provide a net increase in spending by $66 billion. The reconciliation law’s effects on some farm bill programs pose questions regarding future legislative action on a farm bill. Congress may choose whether or not to undertake additional reauthorizations and amendments of farm bill provisions during the 119th Congress. Some have referred to such potential legislation as a “skinny farm bill” or a “farm bill 2.0,” given that the FY2025 budget reconciliation law already enacted some changes that Congress might normally address as part of a farm bill. A stand-alone farm bill during the 119th Congress may include the parts of a typical farm bill that could not be considered under the budget reconciliation process. Such legislation may include provisions that authorize the framework for discretionary funded programs. Examples include programs in what are usually the farm bill titles for credit, rural development, research, forestry, bioenergy, horticulture, and miscellaneous titles. In addition, several mandatory spending programs have authorities that were not extended by P.L. 119-21. Without reauthorization or an extension, these programs either may not have authority to operate beyond FY2026 or may not continue to receive new budget authority. A new farm bill may also consider policy amendments, particularly for mandatory spending programs, whether or not they were addressed in budget reconciliation. And finally, a new farm bill may consider a longer-term suspension of “permanent law,” a set of nonexpiring, outdated provisions from the 1930s and 1940s that could result in costly and market-distorting effects for certain commodities if Congress does not act to keep them suspended.