Senate Agriculture Committee rejects farm bill in partisan split

The Senate Agriculture Committee rejected a five-year farm bill on August 6, 2026, in a contentious 10-11 vote. The defeat occurred because Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Tommy Tuberville were absent, preventing a party-line vote, while Democrats rebelled over a provision imposing food stamp cost-sharing on states with high error rates. The bill also contained a stalled measure to allow year-round E15 ethanol sales, drawing disappointment from agricultural groups like the Missouri Farm Bureau.

Senate farm bill committee rejection

• ▪The Senate Agriculture Committee rejected a five-year, 983-page farm bill on August 6, 2026, in a 10-11 vote
• ▪Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman recessed the committee after the failed vote, stating the panel would return after the August recess to vote again

SNAP state cost-sharing dispute

• ▪Senator Amy Klobuchar argued that the farm bill's proposed SNAP cost-sharing delay unfairly exempted Alaska, which has a high error rate, while forcing mid-error states like Minnesota, Arkansas, Kansas, and Michigan to pay
• ▪The 2025 reconciliation law requires states with food stamp error rates above 6 percent to pay part of the benefit costs starting in fiscal 2028, but grants states with the highest error rates an extra year
• ▪Chairman John Boozman stated that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program pays out over $8 billion monthly, with 10 percent of those benefits distributed in error, mostly as overpayments
• ▪Senate Democrats refused to support the farm bill unless a proposed delay in a state cost-sharing requirement for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was doubled from one year to two years

Republican committee member absences

• ▪Republican Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama were absent from the August 6, 2026 markup, leaving the Republican committee majority short of votes
• ▪The absence of Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Tommy Tuberville prevented the Republican-controlled Senate Agriculture Committee from passing the farm bill along party lines

E15 year-round sales provision

• ▪The rejected farm bill contained a provision to amend the Clean Air Act to allow the year-round sale of E15, a gasoline blend containing a higher percentage of ethanol
• ▪Senator Cynthia Lummis opposed the E15 language in the farm bill and threatened to offer an amendment to remove it if the bill reached the Senate floor without a compromise for small refiners

Farm sector reaction to delay

• ▪Missouri Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins expressed disappointment that the Senate Agriculture Committee failed to advance the farm bill before the August recess
• ▪Missouri Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins stated that Congress still needs to deliver on key policies, including nationwide, year-round E15 sales, despite a tight legislative calendar