The Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026, the next iteration of the farm bill, was passed by the House of Representatives with a vote of 224-200 on April 30.

Early on the morning of March 5, after more than 20 hours of deliberation, the U.S. House of Representatives’ agriculture committee advanced the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026 – often referred to as Farm Bill 2.0 – to the House floor. The legislation now moves to the full House for consideration before the Senate starts working on its own farm bill proposal.

Federal authorities formally dropped the charges levied against South Dakota ranchers Charles and Heather Maude on April 28, following a nearly yearlong dispute with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) over a 25-acre parcel of land bordering the federally administered Buffalo Gap National Grasslands in South Dakota.

“Ag has changed yesterday, it’s changing today, and it will surely change tomorrow,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a speech to attendees at the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) Convention on April 12. “What has stayed the same for far too long are the broken systems in Washington, D.C. – including systems at the USDA that haven’t been updated in decades.”

For more than 70 years, the USDA has fought to keep New World screwworms out of U.S. livestock, but the battle has incurred some heavy costs along the way.