ACC Action Policy Series: The Next Steps on a Farm Bill

American Farmers Deserve Empowered Stewardship

By Sarah Rosa

Attached to the continuing resolution passed this month was yet another one-year extension of 2018 Farm Bill programs, prolonging the already historic delay of updated farm bill legislation. While the Conservation Title received a much-needed plus-up through the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this summer, many reforms are still needed to ensure these programs can fully maximize those additional dollars. Congress must work together to reach a deal and finally deliver a full Farm Bill that empowers our greatest conservationists: America’s farmers and ranchers.

Before diving into the specific reforms that should be incorporated into a 2026 Farm Bill, it’s important to underscore just how critical the additional dollars added to the Conservation Title baseline truly are. Through reconciliation, an additional $16 billion was invested into voluntary conservation programs that provide farmers with financial and technical assistance to implement conservation practices on their land. These programs have long been oversubscribed and highly popular. It was well past time to increase the resources available to our greatest conservationists.

House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson and Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chair John Boozman had long advocated for shifting the additional dollars provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, which were set to expire in just a few years, into the baseline to strengthen these programs in perpetuity. That is a huge win for farmers and our natural heritage.

However, providing funding isn’t the only solution to empowering farmers and ranchers as conservationists. As Chairman Thompson and Senator Boozman understand, it is equally critical to ensure that these programs can put those dollars to use in an effective and efficient manner that delivers stronger conservation outcomes.

The House’s 2024 Farm Bill that advanced out of the Agriculture Committee last year, led by Chairman Thompson, included several provisions designed to maximize the investments flowing into conservation programs. The Increased TSP Access Act would expand the number of available technical service providers (TSPs) by creating a certification process for third-party providers, an important step to meet growing farmer interest and demand.

To better capitalize on new and emerging conservation practices, the House bill also included the Streamlining Conservation Practice Standards Act, which would create a public database to evaluate conservation technologies and allow the Secretary of Agriculture to award Conservation Innovation Grants for cutting-edge practices. Additionally, the bill would establish an Office of Conservation Innovation to support the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in promoting innovative conservation practices, revising existing standards, and recommending new ones.

On top of these necessary provisions, any 2026 Farm Bill should also ensure that conservation investments lead to measurable outcomes—specifically, by prioritizing practices that actually deliver environmental and economic benefits. One way to accomplish this is by requiring NRCS to ensure that conservation practices meet a minimum threshold on the Conservation Practice Physical Effects (CPPE) matrix, which is already used by state NRCS offices to evaluate the conservation impacts of each practice. This safeguard, if applied to increase in baseline funding, would help ensure new funding goes towards current and added practices that make a targeted impact improving the health of ecosystems and farmland productivity under increasing strain. 

Additionally, to strengthen American competitiveness in agricultural innovation, the Farm Bill should increase coordination between the Department of War and the Department of Agriculture on research related to national security and agriculture, such as drought resilience, soil desertification, and disease management. In a similar vein, reauthorizing and fully funding the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA) will be essential, along with administrative reforms such as placing the authority under the Secretary of Agriculture and hiring a dedicated director.

America’s farmers and ranchers remain some of our greatest conservationists, tending the land and providing the food, fiber, and fuel that power our nation. Delivering a 2026 Farm Bill is paramount, and whatever Congress ultimately passes must empower them as the stewards they have always been.