Jackson Jambalaya

As we’ve discussed in this column before, Congress has not adopted a comprehensive five-year Farm Bill since 2018. In states like Mississippi, there are few pieces of legislation that are more impactful, given this state’s $9.51 billion total agricultural production value and the jobs those activities support.

Historically, farm bills were mostly bipartisan efforts aimed at the myriad issues touched by the legislative beast known as the Farm Bill. But as enunciated in a Jan.7, 2025 scholarly article in the conversation.com by Arizona State University researchers Christopher Neubert and Kathleen Merrigan entitled “Why 2026 could see the end of the Farm Bill era of American agriculture policy,” it’s clear that traditional Farm Bills may be a political thing of the past.

On that same Jan. 7 date, Republican U.S. Senate challenger Sarah Adlakha – the Gulf Coast osteopath – lambasted incumbent GOP U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith over the lack of a Farm Bill, given her status as a Republican member of both the Senate Agriculture and Senate Appropriations committees.

The Adlakha attack makes a good sound bite, but one that roundly ignores how the GOP congressional majority in both houses and the Trump White House invoked Republican policies on several key Farm Bill points of disagreement in the so-called “One Bill Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) budget reconciliation legislation – and why.

First, it’s important to note that passing a full five-year Farm Bill – because of its size and complexity — generally requires a 60-vote supermajority in the U.S. Senate, whereas only a simple 51-vote majority can suffice in the budget reconciliation process like the OBBBA. The House requires a simple 218-vote majority for passage, but the GOP's partisan margin is incredibly close. It was 218 to 214 for the OBBBA vote.

Second, is passing a traditional Farm Bill still politically possible? Neubert and Merrigan, two scholars with prior experience in Congress and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are skeptical, writing: “Farm bills are massive pieces of legislation that address a diverse constellation of topics, including agricultural commodities, conservation, trade, nutrition, rural development, energy, forestry and more.

“Because of their complexity, farm bills are difficult to negotiate in any political environment. And as the topics have expanded since the first iteration in 1933, Congress has agreed to take the whole thing up once every five years or so.

“However, the most recent farm bill’s provisions expired in 2023. They have been renewed (on a one-year basis) ever since, but without the comprehensive overhaul that used to accompany farm bills. As former federal employees who handled agriculture policy and now study that topic, it’s unclear to us whether a comprehensive, five-year farm bill can be passed in 2026, or ever again,” they wrote.

So while raising that very real issue that times are tough for American farmers in a Mississippi Republican U.S. Senate primary might grab a headline, the fact for Republican voters is that the OBBBA increases agricultural spending by some $66 billion, preserves/extends several key tax provisions vital to farmers and farm lenders, and made 30 million acres eligible for Price Loss Coverage and Agricultural Risk Coverage programs and allows payouts from those programs to increase in 2026.

For those not familiar with those programs, OBBBA changes increase commodity price supports. Crop insurance received a $6.3 billion funding boost in the bill, but OBBBA also cut nutrition. programs by $186 billion through 2034 and expanded work requirements for receiving SNAP benefits or food stamps.

After Trump signed OBBBA into law on July 4 last year, the American Farm Bureau Federation said: “The resulting sweeping legislative package preserves Farm Bureau-supported provisions, strengthens the farm safety net and offers longer-term certainty for farmers and ranchers navigating rising input costs, volatile markets and weather uncertainty.

“(OBBBA) delivers long-overdue policy certainty by strengthening core safety net programs, enhancing risk management tools and locking in important tax provisions for family farms. It reflects many of Farm Bureau’s top priorities and offers measurable wins for producers navigating an increasingly complex farm economy. At the same time, OBBBA is not a complete substitute for a full farm bill reauthorization,” Farm Bureau said.

Sen. Hyde-Smith will face tough attacks in a primary battle, but this one seems particularly contrived when compared to the facts of this legislation.

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.