House Appropriations Committee advances FY2026 agriculture appropriations after marathon markup; several policy amendments fail

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture resumed markup of the fiscal 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies appropriations bill and voted to report the bill to the full House after extensive debate and a long string of recorded and voice votes.

The markup featured sustained debate over a collection of policy riders and directed studies — spanning a proposed study of farmers' health-insurance coverage, pressure to remove language restricting acknowledgment of racism from grant-funded research, workplace protections for employees responding to highly pathogenic avian influenza, potential economic harms to independent grocers from proposed SNAP cuts, maternal-health provisions for a rural-hospital pilot and a required review of the infant-formula market under the WIC program. Several amendments were defeated on roll calls or voice votes; others were adopted.

Why it matters: the bill funds USDA program delivery, conservation technical assistance and food programs that together affect rural and urban food access, public-health surveillance for animal disease and nutrition programs serving infants and families. Changes to report language, directed studies, or program rules that accompany appropriations can shape agency priorities and enforcement without creating new statutes.

What members said - "This is just asking for a study, on farmers' health insurance coverage," the sponsor said when introducing his amendment, stressing that some farm sectors—"in particular dairy farmers"—showed high rates of nontraditional or no coverage in the material he presented. - Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (identified in the transcript as the gentlelady who offered the amendment) argued her amendment "would strike language from this bill…