(KNOX and North Dakota Monitor) – The U.S. House approved, 224-200, a five-year farm bill Thursday as members of Congress attempt to update major agriculture and nutrition policy after three years of extensions.
The bill would authorize subsidy and nutrition assistance programs through fiscal 2031. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated an earlier version of the bill would not meaningfully affect discretionary federal spending over an 11-year window, and would add $162 million in mandatory spending over the next six years.
Agriculture Committee ranking Democrat Angie Craig of Minnesota opposed the bill, saying it did not address any of the pressing issues that farmers and SNAP recipients face. The bill does not help alleviate the rising costs farmers face from President Donald Trump’s tariffs and “locks in the $187 billion cut” to SNAP in last year’s spending law, Craig said.
Republican Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota tvoted in favor of thelegislation. “Getting a full five-year Farm Bill passed in the House for the first time since 2018 is a major win for agriculture and for North Dakota,” Fedorchak says producers need certainty, not short-term extensions.
The bill would still have to pass the Senate, which has not yet introduced its version.
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