Subcommittee advances FY26 agriculture, rural development and FDA spending bill after partisan debate

Chairman Harris, the subcommittee chair, opened the markup of the fiscal year 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies appropriations bill, saying the subcommittee’s discretionary allocation for USDA, FDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is $25,500,000,000 — a $1,100,000,000, or 4.2%, decrease from FY25 enacted levels. "In a setting of $2,000,000,000,000 deficits, that modest constraint is necessary," he said.

The bill funds several USDA priorities while trimming other programs. "This bill provides 1,150,000,000.00 for the animal and plant health inspection service, APHIS," Harris said, adding the legislation sustains investments in farm programs, disaster assistance and crop insurance administration. The bill also provides $7,600,000,000 for WIC, rescinds $100,000,000 from carryover balances and implements a 10% reduction in the WIC cash value voucher to reset benefits toward pre-pandemic levels, according to the chairman's remarks.

Ranking Member of the subcommittee, Mr. Bishop, said he could not support the measure. Bishop said the bill…