Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence from the Agriculture Committee has put farm bill negotiations into a standstill.
Democrats want to delay when states must start sharing costs under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a change Republicans put in a previous law. Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Arkansas) has wanted to keep that potential delay out of negotiations.
But with McConnell, the second-ranking Republican on the panel, away from the Senate for more than a month for medical reasons, Democrats have more leverage over the process.
The committee is currently split 11-11, making it impossible to advance legislation without bipartisan support. The stalemate over SNAP has dimmed Boozman’s hope of marking up the Senate version of the farm bill at the end of July.
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Boozman acknowledged the setback without the Kentucky Republican’s presence. “We’re in a situation where we are trying to get Sen. McConnell back. He’s progressing well, so hopefully we’ll get him back soon,” he said.
The Senate is set to leave soon for a break that lasts until mid-September, which leaves Congress with a steep challenge to pass the farm bill before the current version expires at the end of September.
The potential expiration is a pressure point on both parties, as farmers face record-high bankruptcies and surging input costs. The multi-year bill addresses an array of agricultural and food programs, and the last farm bill’s economic assumptions have largely become outdated.
Democrats have demanded a two-year delay in shifting SNAP benefit costs under last year’s reconciliation law, which requires states to start covering 5% to 15% of SNAP benefit costs beginning in October 2027, based on their payment error rates. The error rate measures overpayments and underpayments to recipients, not fraud.
“We want a two-year delay on SNAP provisions,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), a member of the committee, told NOTUS. “It’s a deal-maker and a deal-breaker.”
Democrats point to an exception that the worst-performing states already received in last year’s negotiation process for the reconciliation bill. States with error rates of 20% or higher got a two-year delay in the law as part of a deal that secured the vote of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) for the broader reconciliation package; Alaska’s error rate is among the highest in the country.
Democrats are asking for the same delay for every state.
Boozman has acknowledged states have had more trouble than expected getting under the 6% error-rate threshold that triggers the cost share: Only nine states achieved full compliance in fiscal 2025, while the national average of the error rate was 10.62%.
Boozman said he would rather not touch SNAP in the Senate version of the farm bill, but he hasn’t ruled it out either. Other Republicans say they aren’t ready to budge.
“I think at some point they [Democrats] come to a realization that they get to keep pushing their social program, and they will,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), a member of the committee, told NOTUS. “We get that, but it’s time to move on and get something done.”
Hoeven also noted elements of the farm bill that Democrats do heavily support, and said he thinks that going without a bill would be a bridge too far.
For now though, Democrats seem resolved not to back down from their demand.
“I think it’s too important,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), a member of the committee, told NOTUS.
Schiff said farm bills are traditionally bipartisan, and this one’s pathway for consensus resides with a delay in the SNAP cost shift. “We desperately want a farm bill on both sides of the aisle. There is a path forward, but it will require some mitigation of the harm from the SNAP cuts,” he said.
Republicans say deadline pressure could be alleviated somewhat when farm-related provisions included in the reconciliation bill come online in October.
The farm bill has been overdue since the last five-year authorization, the 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act, expired in 2023. Congress has spent the years since patching it together with extensions.
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