What the Reconciliation Bill Means for Organic Agriculture

Earlier this week, the House Agriculture Committee released its budget reconciliation bill and then met for the bill’s markup, during which committee members reviewed, debated, and discussed amendments to the proposed legislation. On Wednesday evening (May 14), the House Agriculture Committee passed the bill with all 29 Republicans in favor and all 25 Democrats opposed. The bill would slash over $290 billion from the Farm Bill baseline while increasing spending by about $60 billion to achieve $230 billion in spending cuts over 10 years. These savings are part of a broader $1.5 trillion deficit reduction effort tied to extending Trump-era tax cuts and increasing spending on defense and border security. The bill now goes to the House Budget Committee, which will merge it with the reconciliation measures passed by other committees. The House Budget Committee markup for the full reconciliation bill will be on Friday, May 16 at 9 a.m. The next step after that is a full floor vote in the chamber on the bill.

Resources: bill text and section-by-section summary of its provisions. You can watch the House Agriculture Committee markup on Day 1 here and Day 2 here.