It’s that time of year when many of us look back at the last 12 months and assess our successes—and where we may have come up short. It’s also a good time to reflect on the past year in agricultural policy—particularly the food and farm bill and appropriations—and assess what Congress achieved (or in many cases, where it fell short). So let’s dive in.
What happened with the farm bill in 2024?
Despite a few steps forward and moments of hopeful optimism, 2024 will follow in the footsteps of 2023 as another year that failed to produce an updated food and farm bill.
There were a few signs of progress. In May, the Republican-controlled House introduced a (mostly bad) version of the farm bill, and the Democrat-controlled Senate followed with a detailed “framework” that was formally introduced as legislation in November, and addressed many more of UCS’s key priorities around climate, conservation, equity, labor, and nutrition. However, the Senate bill had no support among Republicans and never moved forward. Meanwhile, the House Agriculture Committee passed its version of farm bill legislation, but the bill never received a vote by the full House.
With the year ending without a new food and farm bill, Congress passed another extension of the previous bill, which will last until September 2025 (read on for more details). This means that the new 119th Congress will have to start the process all over again.
And what about appropriations?
One thing the food and farm bill and the appropriations process have in common: Congress has a bad habit of pushing both of them into the next year. (Maybe a New Year’s resolution to quit procrastinating might be in order?) Last year was no exception.
With no realistic prospect of passing fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bills before the presidential election, Congress instead approved a continuing resolution (CR) last fall to fund the government at last year’s levels through the end of December 2024. After returning to Washington post-election, Congress once again punted appropriations to the next Congress and the incoming administration—but not without some last-minute drama.
In late December, the House of Representatives released a continuing resolution to fund the government at last year’s levels through March 2025 and also provide an extension to the farm bill—unfortunately, without including climate-focused conservation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. UCS and others in the conservation community had strongly advocated for this money to be rolled into the farm bill’s baseline funding, building up the amount of conservation money available for years to come. However, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced just days before the CR’s release that he did not want to include these conservation funds in the bill, apparently in response to pressure from conservatives in his party.
Then, even this deal was threatened when President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk (what’s his official title again?!) weighed in at the last moment, expressing opposition to many of the inclusions in the spending deal and urging Congress to pass only a “clean CR,” which would keep the government funded until March but do little else. This bill was resoundingly rejected by the House.
Eventually, with just hours to spare before the deadline to avoid a government shutdown, the House and Senate passed and President Biden signed into law a CR that extends government funding at current levels until March 2025 and the farm bill until September 2025 (though without funding for several important programs such as agricultural scholarships for students of color and organic farming programs, and again, without the conservation funding).
Whew—just typing all of that was exhausting.
What can we expect in 2025?
Soon we will have both a new administration and a new Congress in place. So what do these changes mean for the food and farm bill, appropriations, and other UCS priorities?
The 119th Congress will face many urgent legislative tasks, including finalizing FY25 funding levels and confirming the Trump administration’s cabinet nominees. All of this means that the food and farm bill may not see much action until at least the later part of 2025. This will make it especially important for advocates to look for other ways beyond the farm bill to advance priorities around conservation, climate, equity, food and farm worker protections, and other issues.
As noted above, Congress (finally) reached a deal to continue funding the government at last year’s levels until March 2025—at which point (hopefully) new appropriations funding for FY25 will be finalized, taking us through September 2025.
But wait—that doesn’t mean the appropriations process will be over! (Spoiler alert: it’s basically never over). After Congress wraps up its work on FY25 funding, the House and Senate will immediately need to begin the long process of appropriating funding for agriculture programming for the next fiscal year, which officially begins in October. It’s enough to make your head spin.
To sum it all up: 2024 was a busy year for both appropriations and the food and farm bill, but sadly, it ended without much real progress in either area. Here’s hoping that 2025 will provide a fresh start—despite all the challenges that lie ahead. We’ll keep you posted as things move forward in the new year and encourage you to continue reaching out to your representatives in Congress and the new administration to make your voice heard.