Passing a Farm Bill in 2025 May Be Difficult – Here’s Why
The Farm Bill, a crucial piece of legislation that shapes U.S. agriculture policy, is supposed to be renewed every five years. The last full Farm Bill passed in 2018, with a scheduled renewal in 2023. However, Congress opted for a one-year extension—then another in 2024. Unfortunately, the 2024 extension left essential programs like the Organic Certification Cost Share Program without funding. Now, the Farm Bill is more than a year overdue, and the road to passing a new one in 2025 looks difficult.
What’s Holding Up the Farm Bill?
Congressional priorities and political maneuvering are creating significant obstacles to passing a Farm Bill this year. Here’s why:
Budget Reconciliation Priorities: Congress is focusing on enacting President Trump’s agenda through a special budget reconciliation process, which allows certain budget measures to pass with a simple majority rather than the usual 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. One key priority for the Trump administration and GOP is extending the 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025.
Major Spending Cuts: To offset these tax cuts, House Republicans are pushing for $1.5 trillion in spending reductions, including $230 billion in cuts to agriculture programs.
Threats to Nutrition Programs: A significant portion of the proposed agriculture cuts would likely come from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
Limited Room for Farm Programs: Reducing SNAP funding now as part of the budget reconciliation process will make Farm Bill negotiations even more difficult. Slashing SNAP and other agriculture-related spending as part of the budget reconciliation process would leave lawmakers without the offsets they are seeking in the Farm Bill negotiations to pay to update farm safety net programs.
House Republicans who represent farm-heavy districts have expressed concern that the push for deep budget reductions now could derail the Farm Bill entirely.
What This Means for Organic Programs
For the organic sector, Farm Bill delays and funding uncertainty have already had severe consequences:
Programs like the Organic Certification Cost Share Program—which helps offset the annual fees farmers to pay for certification—were left out of the latest extension, meaning they remain unfunded in 2025. Learn more.
The Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), USDA’s flagship organic research program, has mandatory funding, but future increases may be in jeopardy.
Other organic priorities like funding for organic transition and market development could be hard to achieve if Congress significantly reduces funding for agriculture programs now.
Take Action
NOC is continuing to communicate with Members of Congress about the needs of the organic community and our priorities for the Farm Bill. We are also working to restore funding for ‘orphan’ organic programs that were left out of the Farm Bill extension.
Congress needs to hear from organic farmers, businesses, and advocates. Contact your legislators and let them know that you want them to restore funding for organic programs.