Has the farm bill hit a dead end?

This is farm policy news with no direct link to home energy upgrades, so here's what happened in plain terms.

Congress looks unlikely to pass a new farm bill this year, which would make it four years in a row lawmakers have failed to renew this major piece of agricultural law. Senator Mitch McConnell recently cast a deciding vote to move a Republican-backed version out of the Senate agriculture committee, but it still needs 60 votes to clear the full Senate, and Republicans hold only 53 seats. Democrats have blocked it because it doesn't restore funding cuts to SNAP, the food assistance program, which lost $186 billion under a law Trump signed last year. Democrats also want a delay in a change that would raise states' costs for running SNAP.

The stakes go beyond food assistance. SNAP cuts hit farmers too, since many of their customers use those benefits, and rural areas have higher SNAP participation than cities. If the cost-sharing change to SNAP goes through, states may have to divert money from other budgets, like education or transportation, to cover it — a squeeze that would fall hardest on small and mid-size farms already dealing with rising costs and shaky trade conditions.

One provision farm groups are glad to see dropped is the Save Our Bacon Act, which would have loosened rules on confining farm animals. Some in the industry argue that no bill this year is better than the current draft, since it would mean the 2018 farm bill stays in effect while Congress tries again in 2027.