Ag committee chair pushes for more grower aid as farm bill vote gains momentum

The chair of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee is advocating for an additional $20 billion to help farmers offset rising production costs as lawmakers hope for a farm bill vote on the House floor by the end of the month.

Rep. Glenn Thompson is pushing for the additional funding to help producers manage surging production costs for fertilizer, fuel and shipping, according to an Agri-Pulse report. Thompson’s proposal would allocate $10 billion to specialty crop growers and $10 billion to row crop producers.

In February, USDA announced one-time federal bridge payments totaling $1 billion to assist specialty crop growers, following a December 2025 allocation of $12 billion for row crop growers. Industry advocates including the National Potato Council (NPC) immediately called for additional aid.

During a House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing last week, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins characterized the assembly of the aid package as a “duct-tape and bubble-gum” process.

Specialty crop relief was addressed in a farm bill draft released in February by the house ag committee.

Thompson indicated to Agri-Pulse that a full chamber vote on the House version of the bill is targeted for late April. On April 16, the House Rules Committee issued a notice that the Committee may meet the week of April 27 to provide consideration for a floor vote.

Senate Agriculture Committee chair John Boozman expressed openness to securing additional aid, citing the significant impact of rising diesel and fertilizer prices.

In July 2025, USDA expanded the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) program, which now has total funding of $2.65 billion.  

NPC joined more than 330 agricultural organizations supporting full House consideration of the farm bill in an April 17 letter (.pdf) .

“Farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses have been operating under Farm Bill policies written in 2018, and the landscape has changed significantly since that time,” Christy Seyfert, Farm Credit Council president and CEO, said. “Simply put, agriculture and rural America cannot continue to manage the challenges of 2026 with the solutions from 2018. This letter reflects the strong interest of agricultural constituencies in all 50 states in completing the Farm Bill this year.”