Washington, DC, November 13, 2026 – This week, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) released seven fiscal year (FY) 2027 appropriations bills, including the FY2027 Agriculture Appropriations bill. While the Senate has traditionally negotiated its bills before public release, to date Chair Collins and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) have been unable to reach a funding agreement.

“Amidst difficult years for America’s farmers and ranchers, the partisan FY 2027 agriculture spending bill would provide level funding for many programs but falls short of advancing investments that would strengthen farmer autonomy and success. The bill avoids further cuts to popular research programs, while offering a small increase to conservation technical assistance. Notably, the bill consistently expresses concern with low USDA staffing levels, and takes small steps to begin to undo the harm brought on by significant understaffing and reorganization. 

While the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is pleased to see small strides toward addressing the USDA staffing crisis, the bill entirely lacks key provisions necessary to support farmers. These include reversing USDA’s new REAP rule that puts the program out of reach for most farmers and small businesses, and indefinitely delaying the proposed OMB grant rule that would create uncertainty for farmers and community partners. NSAC urges Congressional leaders to strive for a true bipartisan agreement that includes these provisions, increases investments, and delivers a strong win for our farmers and ranchers,” said Nick Rossi, NSAC Policy Specialist.  

Funding levels in the Senate FY2027 Agriculture Appropriations bill for several NSAC priority programs are as follows: 

• Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, $48 million
• Conservation Technical Assistance, $747.75 million
• Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, $10 million
• Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, $5 million

In May 2026, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a proposed rule that would inject new uncertainty and risk into an already fragile agricultural sector and undermine the USDA’s ability to fulfill its mission. NSAC’s comments in response to the rule highlight how it would destabilize many of USDA’s most important farm bill and rural development programs, including farmer conservation program contracts, beginning farmer training programs, local and regional food system initiatives, and critical agricultural loan programs.

Several months later, on October 1, 2026, the USDA published a final rule overhauling the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which took effect on October 16. Unfortunately, rather than improving REAP, this new rule flips the script on how the program has benefited small farmers, turning it into a program that drives farm consolidation by disproportionately benefiting the wealthiest farm businesses. 

Stay tuned to the NSAC blog for future updates on annual appropriations.

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more: https://sustainableagriculture.net/