20 Feb 2026 BPC Action Calls on Congress to Move a Farm Bill in 2026 in Energy and Environment, Health

From our cities to our heartland, every American community benefits when Congress enacts a farm bill that empowers farmers, strengthens rural economies, and protects nutrition programs. The 2026 farm bill presents a critical opportunity for Congress to work together to support farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners, safeguard important nutrition programs, and strengthen rural economies—while addressing the nation’s fiscal challenges. The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Task Force and Food and Nutrition Security Task Force have developed practical, bipartisan recommendations to achieve these goals. The following provisions align with these recommendations, and BPC Action urges Congress to pass a farm bill in 2026 that prioritizes them. 

Title II Conservation:   

• Increase access to Conservation Technical Service Providers (TSP). We support the inclusion of the TSP Access Act, which allows non-federal entities to be certified as USDA Technical Service Providers and streamlines the process for producers to design, plan, and install conservation projects.   

Title IV Nutrition:  

• Emphasize nutrition security. We support policies that place an emphasis on the importance of nutrition and nutrition security.  

• Modernize nutrition incentives. We support provisions to enhance and modernize the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program to further increase access and expand eligibility to all forms of fruits and vegetables.  

• Expand the Emergency Food Assistance Program.  We support provisions to increase funding for the purchase of commodities and for storage and distribution costs.  

• Support innovative food pilots. We support innovative demonstration projects aligned with BPC’s Food and Nutrition Security Task Force recommendations.  

Title VI Rural Development:  

• Drive conservation through loans and loan guarantees. We support the Producing Responsible Energy and Conservation Incentives and Solutions for the Environment (PRECISE) Act, which would provide loans and loan guarantees to help farmers and ranchers adopt precision agriculture practices and invest in precision agriculture technologies, improving resource efficiency and strengthening rural farm resilience.  

• Reduce methane emissions. We support the Enteric Methane Innovation Tools for Lower Emissions and Sustainable Stock (EMIT LESS) Act, which would support R&D investments in enteric methane reduction technologies that help dairy farmers and cattle ranchers lower livestock emissions.  

Title VII Research:  

• Expand agriculture innovation research. Reauthorizing the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA) program through the Agriculture Advancing Cutting Edge (ACE) Agriculture Act and other research initiatives would expand cutting-edge, transformative agricultural research and development. Additionally, the Biochar Research Network Act would develop regional biochar research networks to investigate the beneficial end-uses of biochar, including research on carbon sequestration, water and nutrient retention as a soil additive, and the reduction of methane emissions as a feed additive.   

• Modernize Soil Sequestration Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification. The Advancing Research on Agricultural Climate Impacts (ARACI) Act would enable USDA to develop new tools to better measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration activities, thereby increasing confidence in the benefits of regenerative practices.  

Title VIII Forestry:  

• Support reforestation. We support expanding the USDA Reforestation, Nursery, and Genetics Resources (RNGR) program through the Reforestation, Nursery, and Genetics Resources (RNGR) Support Act. The RNGR Act would strengthen the seedling supply chain and provide technical training, coordination, and support to state, tribal, and private tree nurseries across the country. Improving nursery capacity is essential to addressing reforestation backlogs, accelerating wildfire recovery, and improving long-term forest resilience.  

• Open new market opportunities for forest landowners. The Rural Forest Markets Act would enable USDA to issue loan guarantees to help small private forest landowners invest in sustainable forest restoration on their land. Such loan guarantee programs help private forest landowners diversify their revenue streams and ensure high-integrity restoration projects are eligible for innovative voluntary markets.   

• Innovate timber. The Timber Innovation for Building Rural Communities Act and the Fix Our Forests Act would improve forest health, reduce wildfire risk, sequester carbon, and boost rural economies by supporting science-based restoration projects on national forests and private lands and investing in innovative timber products.   

Title IX Energy :

• Advance sustainable aviation fuel. The Farm to Fly Act would advance the development of sustainable aviation fuel in USDA programs, encourage public-private partnerships, and increase interagency collaboration on this important issue to bolster rural development.  

Title XII Miscellaneous :

• Improve conservation data access. The Agriculture Innovation Act would provide farmers with the information they need to make informed economic decisions regarding conservation practice implementation by enhancing USDA’s and other agricultural stakeholders’ ability to securely access and analyze anonymous cross-agency USDA data. This would allow farmers to better understand the economic, environmental, and risk-management benefits of specific conservation and production practices and how to implement them to maximize their bottom line. Enhanced data access will help farmers better evaluate the economic, environmental, and risk-management benefits of specific conservation and production practices and implement them to strengthen their bottom line.   
  

Read our full letter to House and Senate Agriculture Committee leadership here.