02/19/2026
Farm Bill Timeline
On Friday, February 13, 2026, House Agriculture Committee Republicans released the text of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, a draft of the long-overdue farm bill that has the potential to significantly shape US agriculture, conservation, funding, and research policy for the next five years.
The House Agriculture Committee has scheduled a markup of the bill to begin February 23, 2026, kicking off a critical phase of committee debate and amendment proposals. These dates mark the first major procedural steps in what is typically a months-long legislative journey.
While House Agriculture Committee Republicans are aiming to reach a floor vote on the bill in April, House Agriculture Democrats have signaled strong opposition. Specifically, Ranking Member Angie Craig (D-MN-02) has indicated that it would be “very difficult, if not impossible” for her to support advancement of the bill as is, arguing that it contains poison pills (e.g., protections for pesticide manufacturers) and does not go far enough to support struggling farmers. In the Senate, Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-AR) is expected to introduce a more bipartisan bill, with indications that certain controversial provisions may be excluded.
Farm Bill Summary Related to Soil Health
Several provisions in this bill have implications for soil health on agricultural lands. Specific mentions of soil health can be found in Title II, including soil mapping tools and soil sensors as covered technologies under Sec. 2001, authorizing state and Tribal grants to develop and implement soil health programs (Sec. 2302), emphasizing the use of third-party providers for technical assistance within conservation soil health planning (Sec. 2502), and explicitly identifying soil health as a focus for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (Subtitle I).
Within the Conservation Title (Title II), the bill primarily proposes programmatic updates to major conservation programs such as EQIP (Subtitle C), CSP (Subtitle D), and CRP (Sec. 2101), rather than making adjustments to funding levels, as funding for these programs has largely been set via last year’s spending bills (FY26 Appropriations and the “reconciliation” bill). (The bill does, however, provide funding authorizations for RCPP (Subtitle I) at $450 million annually.) Title II also includes other provisions related to state assistance for soil health (Sec. 2302), grazing lands (Sec. 2401), and watershed protection (Secs. 2403, 2405).
Other provisions of note related to soil health can be found in Title VII, which advances high-priority research initiatives, including research on soil health, biochar, and PFAs (Sec. 7204).
Title VIII, which focuses on Forestry, includes provisions establishing National and Regional Agroforestry Centers to support research on systems, such as riparian buffers, that can improve soil health (Sec. 8301), includes soil restoration as an objective on National Forest System Lands (Sec. 8407), and establishes a Biochar Application Demonstration Project (Sec. 8434).
