WASHINGTON, DC (RFD-TV) — A late-night Senate vote advanced a bipartisan funding package that would reopen shuttered agencies and provide full-year appropriations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — a key shift from stopgaps that kept farm services in limbo.
The Senate voted Sunday night to advance a continuing resolution to fund the government. That vote was largely procedural, opening the bill up for debate. Then, overnight, the Senate voted again to send that bill to the House. The measure also extends the 2018 Farm Bill authorities for one year and maintains core ag policies, including support for the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and APHIS operations.
“Ending the government shutdown ensures critical USDA services resume so vulnerable families no longer experience disruptions to nutrition benefits, farmers can access the programs and personnel they rely on to keep their operations running efficiently, and disaster assistance is delivered,” said Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman John Boozman (R-AR). “We advanced long-overdue farm bill policy improvements in the One Big Beautiful Bill, including enhanced risk management tools farmers have been calling for, and we’re continuing work to reauthorize other key initiatives. Extending the farm bill and the U.S. Grain Standards Act gives us more time to finalize these programs essential to farmers, ranchers, and rural America.”
As it stands, the bill would restore federal spending through January and allocate funds to the USDA and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) within the Department of Health and Human Services for next year.
What’s Next
House lawmakers have been called back to Washington, D.C. They are expected to vote tomorrow and send the bill to the President’s desk.
If cleared there and signed by President Trump, the USDA can fully restart Farm Service Agency (FSA) lending and payments, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation work, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) market reporting and grading, and Risk Management Agency (RMA) program administration after weeks of delays.
Shutdown or not, the USDA is releasing some significant numbers this week, including the November World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) Report. The October WASDE never dropped because of the shutdown.
Economist Rich Nelson at Allendale tells us that if the USDA was going to miss any WASDE report throughout the year, October’s was the right one.
“Typically, October is not a big month,” Nelson explained. “We’re not seeing any major numbers. USDA generally makes larger changes in November and January. So indeed, as we go into Friday’s monthly report, we’ll have a lot of speculation about what type of yield declines will be seen for corn and soybeans and whether it does make a substantial change for ending stocks or not here.”
This Friday, Oct. 14, we will receive the November supply-and-demand forecast. It was supposed to be released on Monday, but the shutdown postponed it again. Also, on Friday, the USDA will release the latest crop production report. And then, on Friday, Nov. 21, the NASS will publish the November Cattle-on-Feed report.
Why it Matters for Producers
The Senate package avoids a Farm Bill “cliff” by extending the 2018 law into the next fiscal year and steadies agency budgets. It preserves tools like CCC financing that underpin disaster and commodity programs. The combination of full-year USDA funding and a farm bill extension reduces operational uncertainty heading into winter marketing and 2026 planning.
