Senate Farm Bill Fails, Ag Committee to Vote Again in September

Politico’s Grace Yarrow and Rachel Shin reported that “Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) said he will reconvene committee members in September to vote again on his farm bill package after it failed to advance Thursday.”

“‘We’re going to come back in that first week and have another vote on the same bill again,’ Boozman told reporters after his proposal was stalled due to Republican absences and Democratic backlash over food aid legislation,” Yarrow and Shin reported. “Boozman said he expects Democrats to feel backlash from farm groups and the agriculture sector that has broadly backed the proposed policy updates.”

“‘They’re going to be visiting with their constituents in rural America, farmers and local businesspeople. I think they’re very, very disappointed that we didn’t get something done,’ he said,” according to Yarrow and Shin’s reporting. “Democrats are demanding that Republicans delay by two years the implementation date for a requirement that states share the cost of providing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits starting next fall. Boozman offered a one-year delay and other bipartisan priorities in an effort to garner support.”

“‘I think it’s significant the chairman left the meeting open, as we say, just because we really have to get a farm bill done,’ Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the committee’s ranking member, told POLITICO,” according to Yarrow and Shin’s reporting. “‘It is clear that they have acknowledged now that this high error rate issue of rewarding those states over the mid error rate states is a problem.’ ‘I hope that we will reach an agreement,’ she added.”

“Boozman said that it would take a ‘miracle’ to get the farm bill out of committee, voted on by the full Senate and signed into law before the midterms,” Yarrow and Shin reported. “‘We can do it with cooperation,’ he said.”

McConnell Downs Amendments, but Absence Dooms Final Passage

NOTUS’ Tyler Spence reported that “Sen. Mitch McConnell wasn’t at the Agriculture Committee’s markup of the farm bill Thursday, but the Kentucky Republican was casting tie-breaking votes on partisan issues. Yet his absence is why the bill did not advance to the Senate floor.”

“McConnell, who hasn’t been seen in public for almost two months while on medical leave, voted ‘by proxy’ on each amendment presented during the meeting. Committee rules allow absent senators to authorize a senator who is present at a meeting to cast a vote in addition to his or her own,” Spence reported. “Chair John Boozman (R-Arkansas) said in his opening remarks that he spoke Wednesday night with McConnell, who approved his use of proxy votes as Boozman votes. ‘I know how much he would have wanted to be here to advocate for Kentucky’s farmers and rural communities,’ Boozman said.”

“But Senate rules are different when it comes to a vote to advance the bill to the Senate floor, when proxy votes ‘cannot make the difference in successfully ordering a measure or matter reported to the Senate,’ according to the Congressional Research Service,” Spence reported. “Both McConnell and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) voted by proxy in the final vote, so the bill was not advanced to the floor.”

MCOOL Amendment Adopted During Farm Bill Markup

Progressive Farmer’s Jake Zajkowski reported that “most amendments were decided on 12-11 party-line votes, favoring Republicans. While many farm policy provisions enjoyed bipartisan support, disagreements over SNAP kept members voting with their parties, defeating most Democratic amendments and leaving no path for the farm bill to move forward in August.”

“The two successful amendments were the 34-amendment en bloc package (manager’s amendment) and a 16-7 vote in favor of mandatory country-of-origin labeling,” Zajkowski reported. “The markup anticipated 206 amendments, but Democrats introduced only 13. Republican priorities were incorporated into the manager’s amendment.”

Zajkowski reported in a different article that the MCOOL “vote marked the first time the Senate has acted on beef MCOOL since the 2008 farm bill. The bipartisan American Beef Labeling Act of 2025 would reinstate mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef by adding beef and ground beef back to federal country-of-origin labeling requirements under the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946. The legislation directs the U.S. Trade Representative and USDA to develop and implement a World Trade Organization-compliant labeling system within one year.”

“MCOOL is supported by the United States Cattlemen’s Association and R-CALF USA but opposed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which supports the voluntary Product of USA label,” Zajkowski reported.