U.S. House Advances Farm Bill With Contentious Change for Pesticides

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the farm bill today by a 224-200 bipartisan vote. The $390 billion legislation, formally known as the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (H.R. 7567), heads to the Senate next for its consideration. A full five-year farm bill has not been enacted into law since 2018.

Among the most contentious steps in this process came after the full bill was passed as lawmakers voted to strip Section 10205, which would have reaffirmed that, under FIFRA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the sole authority for pesticide labeling and packaging requirements. This comes as the U.S. Supreme Court just this week heard oral arguments in Monsanto v. Durnell , a case that centers on whether federal pesticide law preempts state law failure-to-warn claims. A lower court jury has awarded John Durnell $1.25 million award after he claimed in 2019 that he developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after years of using the herbicide Roundup.

The 280-142 vote on this amendment is a major win for Make America Healthy Again allies, including Republican sponsor Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who believed the provisions would protect pesticide makers — as a sort of "liability shield" — that have faced hundreds of thousands of health-related lawsuits.

"Today, the House turned its back on the farmers who feed, fuel, and clothe this country. By gutting common-sense crop protection provisions from the Farm Bill, lawmakers caved to anti-science MAHA activists instead of standing with those who grow our food,” said Modern Ag Alliance Executive Director Elizabeth Burns-Thompson. “The result is a patchwork of state rules that will raise costs, cut yields, and increase grocery prices.”

She put the exclamation point on her point by adding, "Farmers asked for certainty; Congress delivered chaos."

But the whole of the farm bill that passed in the morning drew other focus from interest groups.

"The House-passed 2026 Farm Bill supports the farm safety net, preserves existing conservation programs that include opportunities for dairy and livestock producers, bolsters trade promotion programs while protecting common food names, recognizes the important role of dairy in nutrition, and supports animal health programs,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation. “All of these are important priorities to dairy farmers and the broader industry, and we appreciate the leadership shown by House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson and other dairy champions to get this legislation through the House.”

Jim Goodman, co-president of the National Family Farm Coalition and retired dairy farmer, saw this measure far differently, criticizing it as deferring to larger corporate interests rather than family farmer interests.

“The House Farm Bill offers more of the same tired policies that cater to corporate interests and agribusiness instead of providing a broad safety net for independent farms, specialty crop growers, and beginning and underserved farmers,” Goodman said. “It does not adequately fund popular conservation programs like The Conservation Stewardship Program and The Environmental Quality Incentive Programs. It is also imperative that Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL) be codified in the Farm Bill rather than legal indemnification for the corporate purveyors of pesticides. Farmers need a Farm Bill that provides fair prices and better credit access, turns back the clock on corporate consolidation, secures safe local and regional food systems, and provides fair — not just ‘free’ — markets in trade agreements. We should demand a Farm Bill that supports people, not special interests.”

Goodman was not alone in arguing that this farm bill fails to strengthen American agriculture, while it also ignores the needs of thousands of farmers across the country and weakens important markets for many farmers, especially smaller-scale producers.

Yet groups such as the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, The Land Trust, Ducks Unlimited, and National Council of Farmer Cooperatives widely praised many of the steps taken in the legislation, particularly those directed toward conservation and market-and-supply issues.

"Farmer cooperatives are on the front lines of production agriculture — providing grain marketing, input supply, credit, and risk management to millions of farm families," said Duane Simpson, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. "A strong, durable farm bill is foundational to everything they do. We thank Chairman Thompson and the House Agriculture Committee for their persistence in bringing this legislation across the finish line, and we call on Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Boozman and the full Senate to move forward with urgency."

The House's vote marks the furthest a farm bill has made it in Congress since the 2018 bill, yet it faces long odds against becoming law due to policy disagreements in the Senate.

Reports have been unclear as to when the Senate will consider the measure.

The post U.S. House advances farm bill with contentious pesticide change appeared first on AGDAILY .