Republican Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA Bill Increases Costs for Farmers and Rural Communities, Jeopardizes Food for Hungry People at Home and Abroad

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Republicans released the draft fiscal year 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies funding bill, which will be considered in subcommittee tomorrow. This bill increases costs for rural communities and cuts funding for programs that support farmers and help hardworking people feed their families.

For 2026, the bill provides $25.5 billion in discretionary funding, $1.2 billion, or 4.4 percent, below 2025. The legislation:

• Increases costs for farmers and rural communities bycutting critical investments including direct loans to help hardworking Americans buy homes in rural areas, water and waste grants to help the poorest communities get safer water services, and energy savings programs that support farmers and rural small businesses. Republicans are also cutting funding that helps low- and very low-income rural homeowners repair their homes.
• Hurts farmers by cutting the support system that helps them access government resources they are promised.
• Threatens access to food for hardworking and vulnerable Americans by not providing the full fruit and vegetable benefit to USDA's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) recipients.
• Slashes Food for Peace to the lowest level since 2002 while the administration continues to illegally withhold international food assistance, taking food from the mouths of children and hungry people around the world. 

“This funding bill makes it harder for Americans to put food on the table, walks back support that helps women and children get healthy food, and continues the attacks that Congressional Republicans have been making on nutrition programs. This bill slashes international food assistance programs as well as ag research, inspection, conservation, and data services that our ag producers need,” Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D-GA-02) said. “This funding bill also reduces support for the Food and Drug Administration which we rely on to ensure our food and medicine is safe. Our rural communities are not spared either, and this bill makes it harder for rural families to find affordable housing, takes away funds that support our small towns with projects that allow them to provide clean and affordable water to residents. At a time when we need to be investing in America’s farmers and families, this bill goes in the wrong direction.”

“Following the President’s lead, House Republicans have turned their back on America’s farmers. In their 2026 Agriculture funding bill, they take food from the mouths of hungry people in America and around the world, raise water infrastructure costs for rural Americans, and make it harder for small farmers to make ends meet,” Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. “At a time when families around the country are struggling with the high cost of living, House Republicans are paying for a billionaire tax cut by cutting the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) fruit and vegetable benefit. They accelerate our retreat from helping people around the world facing famine, and they pull the rug out from under the farmers who provide the food for hunger programs. Instead of focusing on ways to help lower the cost of living and help farmers and hardworking people, House Republicans are using this bill to eliminate protections for small meat and poultry producers against large corporations that have forced small producers out of business and price gouged consumers. This bill jeopardizes the food security of children and vulnerable families across America and around the world, and underfunds the services and programs that farmers, workers, and rural communities depend on.”

A summary of House Republicans’ 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies bill is here. A fact sheet of the bill is here. The text of the bill is here. The subcommittee markup will be webcast live and linked on the House Committee on Appropriations website.

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