Policy Updates and Issue News January 2026
Agriculture and Food
Dueling plans for more farmer aid
Ranking Democrat Angie Craig (MN) and several of her colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee plan to introduce sweeping legislation that would provide another $17 billion in economic relief to financially strained farmers, delay cost changes in SNAP food aid, and end the administration’s across-the-board tariffs. Meanwhile, Republican Senators John Boozman (AR), Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and John Hoeven (ND), Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, have been discussing a $15 billion relief package with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA). Their proposal would also raise USDA-backed farm operating and ownership loans. These proposals come as Congress is having difficulties completing the farm bill process after including the farm bill commodity and SNAP titles in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Congress hasn’t passed a comprehensive, five-year farm bill since 2018 amid partisan fighting.
President signs whole milk in schools bill
President Trump has signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act passed by Congress last month. The law will let schools serve flavored and unflavored reduced-fat and whole milk, and it overturns a 2010 law that mandated flavored milk be fat-free and traditional milk be 1% fat at most. This action has been a long-term priority for the National Grange.
Dietary Guidelines recommend “real food”
The new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, released in early January, recommends the return to more traditional foods and stresses that Americans should avoid “highly processed foods” and added sugars, especially sugar-sweetened beverages. The Guidelines recommend eating a variety of animal and plant proteins, including eggs, poultry, seafood, and red meat, as well as beans, peas, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds, and soy. The first guidelines were published in 1980 and are a joint project of the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.
Food for Peace headed to USDA
The Food for Peace foreign assistance program will be transferred from the State Department to the USDA by the Trump Administration. Congressional offices were notified of the change in mid-January, and interagency agreements have been signed. Food for Peace has been housed at the State Department since July, following the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) amid allegations of inefficiencies.
USDA to set foreign land reporting standards
The Department of Agriculture is seeking public comment on ways to strengthen reporting of foreign ownership of agricultural land. Foreign acquisitions of agricultural land in the United States increased from about 600,000 acres per year (2013-2017) to 2.6 million acres per year (2017-2023). USDA’s policy goal is to find the best way to get correct, comprehensive, verifiable descriptions or geospatial maps of the agricultural land held by foreign interests. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that USDA staff failed to sufficiently verify the accuracy of foreign land ownership data and were slow to share the data with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which oversees foreign acquisitions of assets considered important to U.S. security.
Ag Workforce
Is Congress serious about immigration law reform?
Although immigration remains as politically polarizing as ever, several lawmakers from both parties say the moment may be right to reform laws governing foreign agricultural workers. Senator Amy Klobuchar. (D-MN), ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, says she recently met with several conservative members of the House and found common ground on the ag worker issue. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA) has said the border had long been controlled by cartels, but is now under control by the United States, making a conversation about reform possible. Thompson hopes to introduce an ag worker reform package in February. According to the Department of Homeland Security, border crossings were down 93% during the first year of the Trump administration’s return to office. Passing a legal, workable, common-sense pathway to secure an ag workforce for farmers and ranchers has been an annual priority for the Grange.
Health Care
Grange pushes for early cancer detection
The National Grange has been a long-time, strong supporter of congressional passage of the Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act (MCED), including this year’s bills H.R. 842 and S. 339. In late December, the Grange joined the nation’s leading cancer advocate organizations in a display in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post to urge Congress to finally pass MCED and authorize Medicare to cover this simple blood test that detects dozens of cancers. In mid-January, these supporters received word that the MCED provision had been included in negotiations for the January 30 government funding package proposal. National Grange President Christine Hamp followed up with personal emails to the top health care staff of both the Senate and House leadership, stressing that the grassroots rural and small-town membership of the National Grange urges Congressional leadership to keep MCED in the January 30 government funding package. Hamp further pointed out that for rural communities now without oncologists and cancer centers, early detection is not a convenience; it is a lifeline.
Telecommunications
Support for first responder network
National Grange President Christine Hamp has firsthand experience as a first responder firefighter. Drawing on that experience, she submitted a statement of support to a Senate hearing on the reauthorization of the federal public safety communications system, FirstNet. In her statement, she called the Senator’s attention to her op-ed in the Spokesman-Review, which gave a concrete example of FirstNet preventing a tragedy in a rural area. “When every second counts, there is no substitute,” she said.
Transportation
Surface Transportation Board to eliminate barriers to rail service
The Surface Transportation Board has released a proposed rule to repeal regulatory restrictions on access to competitive freight rail service, including reciprocal switching. The proposal was greeted enthusiastically by shippers, who say that by eliminating outdated rules, the Board will carry out Congress’s clear directive to allow reciprocal switching when needed to ensure freight rail competition. Reciprocal switching gives shippers who are captive to a single railroad access to a second carrier at a nearby interchange.
Freight rail merger filed
The Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads have now formally submitted merger documents to the Surface Transportation Board. Such a merger would create the nation’s first coast-to-coast freight rail company. Shippers are leery of the merger that would give a single railroad control of nearly half of all U.S. rail traffic. Agricultural organizations respond that farmers already operate on razor-thin margins and worry that consolidated railroads will adversely impact shippers and customers who depend upon rail service to move agricultural commodities, fertilizer, ag chemicals, fuel, and other essential supplies. The Surface Transportation Board unanimously rejected the initial merger application after finding the submission complete. The railroads are allowed to revise and resubmit their application.
Of Interest
Lawmakers to leave Congress
Over 50 Republican and Democratic members of the House of Representatives (30 Republicans and 23 Democrats), frustrated with a dysfunctional Congress, have announced they will head for the exits. Those leaving include conservatives, progressives, and moderates. This development scrambles the calculus on both sides of the aisle ahead of the midterm elections.
2026 will recognize women farmers around the globe
After years of discussion, it’s finally official: 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer. Everywhere you go this year, from farm groups, trade associations, state departments of agriculture, and Congress, you’re likely to hear about recognition for women who lead from the farm to the agribusiness boardroom. A U.S.-sponsored resolution honoring female farmers was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, with 123 countries cosponsoring. A handful of women farmers serving in Congress are expected to introduce a resolution in Congress soon. According to the USDA Census of Agriculture, 58% of all farms had at least one female producer.
Perspectives
"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this resource, you will have truly defeated age." ~ Sophia Loren
“The failure to invest in youth reflects a lack of compassion and a colossal failure of common sense." ~ Coretta Scott King
“Youth has no age." ~ Pablo Picasso
“Forty is the old age of youth. Fifty is the youth of old age." ~ Victor Hugo
“You are never too old to become young." ~ Mae West