Senate budget proposals would boost specialty crop funding

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry has released legislative text detailing its proposals for a massive budget reconciliation package that would increase specialty crop funding.

The proposals also dial back House-approved changes to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

The text (.pdf), released June 11, includes a measure that would increase annual mandatory funding from $85 million to $100 million for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

The Specialty Crop Research Initiative would also see a funding increase, from $80 million to $175 million.

The budget passed the Senate 51-50 on July 1 and returns to the House.

Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ariz.) said in a June 11 statement that the proposals would help U.S. farmers and ranchers “ facing real challenges, which have been unaddressed for too long. This legislation delivers the risk management tools and updated farm bill safety net they need to keep producing the safest, most abundant and affordable food, fuel, and fiber in the world. It’s an investment in rural America and the future of agriculture.”

The committee released several online versions of the text, including a section-by-section breakdown (.pdf).

Also, beginning with the 2026 reinsurance year, specialty crop policies under the administrative and operating expense reimbursement cap would receive a minimum reimbursement of 17% of the policy premium.

“We are grateful to Chairman Boozman and his staff for advancing these vital investments in specialty crops that the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance has been proposing since 2023,” the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA) said in a June 11 statement. “Our message today is simple: any Congressional investment in American agriculture must include specialty crops.

“America’s specialty crop growers confront a host of unprecedented challenges. Rising input costs, limited access to labor, unfair trade practices, disruptions to foreign markets, and natural disasters ranging from flood to drought all impede the competitiveness of these family farms. Nothing short of the survival of our domestic industry is at stake.”

The SCFBA, chaired by National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles, International Fresh Produce Association CEO Cathy Burns, Western Growers CEO and president Dave Puglia and Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association president Mike Joyner, noted legislative work remains to be done.

“Senate rules prohibit the inclusion of some innovative policy initiatives we proposed, such as investments in mechanization and automation and reforms to crop insurance, to provide many of our growers with an affordable and effective safety net for the first time,” the statement said.

SNAP changes

Senate proposals would require states to cover some of the cost of SNAP benefits, currently completely funded by the federal government, if states have a payment error rate above 6% beginning in fiscal 2028. States with rates below that level would continue paying 0%.

States with higher payment error rates would cover a greater share of benefit costs.

The House called for all states to cover 5% of the cost of allotments in its agricultural proposal passed last month as part of a broader plan to advance President Donald Trump’s tax agenda, with states with higher payment error rates having to pay anywhere between 15% to 25%.

“This bill takes a commonsense approach to reforming SNAP — cutting waste, increasing state accountability, and helping recipients transition to self-sufficiency through work and training,” Boozman said. “It’s about being good stewards of taxpayer dollars while giving folks the tools to succeed.”

In the version passed by the House, SNAP changes are part of more than $1 trillion in cuts to social safety net programs, with nearly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare possible to keep the national deficit within legal limits.

Next steps

On June 16, the Senate Finance Committee released the final piece of legislative text from the upper chamber’s budget version. The text proposed deeper cuts to Medicaid than the House version, including more stringent work requirements and a smaller cap on the tax rate that states may charge Medicaid providers.

The committee text also eased the rollback of green energy tax cuts and decreased the state and local tax education caps, moves likely to face opposition when the bill returns to the House.

The text came a day after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office provided an updated estimate of what the bill would add to the national deficit, according to NPR. The updated figure, which includes projections for both economic growth and added costs from interest accrued on the nation’s debt, estimates the House bill would add roughly $2.8 trillion to the deficit in the next 10 years — more than $2.4 trillion originally projected when the bill passed the House in late May.

Republicans in the House and Senate are trying to pass the budget through a special tool called reconciliation — a complicated process that would bypass a filibuster in the Senate if the bill passes that body as well as the House.

Congressional leaders want the bill on Trump’s desk by July 4.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the bill’s passage in the Senate and details of the Senate Finance Committee legislative text.