House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson is optimistic farm bill legislation will get to the full House floor this year, with committee markup beginning March 3.

Illinois Farm Bureau members have been an integral piece of moving the legislation forward, Thompson said.

“Thank you for your early investment, coming to the table and identifying what your needs were,” Thompson told attendees of IFB’s Governmental Affairs Leadership Conference Feb. 17 in Springfield.

Those grassroots efforts are what make IFB special, IFB President Philip Nelson told attendees earlier in the day.

“The power of grassroots is in each and every one of you,” he said. “You are the people who develop the policies. You’re the people that work with legislators to see those policies get implemented.”

Thompson spoke to the more than 400 attendees for about 20 minutes about the proposed farm bill and took questions from IFB members.

As for the tentative timeline for the proposed legislation, Thompson said he’s reserved several days for committee farm bill markup, adding House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, “is going to get us floor time.”

The text was released Feb. 13 and includes a legislative fix for California’s Proposition 12 among many other provisions for a five-year bill.

“I’m impressed with how many things that we dealt with, not just in terms of rural economic development and conservation and obviously, animal health, but all the things that are there and great improvements to access to credit ... raising the loan limits and streamlining the loan process so that when a young farmer is out looking for acreage and they see what they like ... we’re going to do some work to do preapproval, so when they go, they can make the deal right there,” Thompson said.

The legislation, if approved, will be sent to the Senate, with the Senate Ag Committee putting together their version.

“They will pass whatever they need to pass to get 60 votes. It may not include all the things that we do, but then we will go to a conference,” Thompson said.

The Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026 is like the previous farm bill draft released in 2024 that advanced out of committee, with a few key updates. That bill never made it to the full House floor.

“That was largely because back in 2024 the Senate didn’t have a bill. There was no future for a farm bill, unfortunately,” Thompson said. “Given the Senate leadership and the makeup of the Senate, times have changed, and so Speaker Johnson is going to be working hard to write us a pathway to floor time.”

Thompson expects debate on the Prop 12 provision as well as text requiring uniformity in pesticide labeling nationally.

California is the only state that “sells bacon by the slice,” Thompson said, referring to cost implications from Proposition 12, which was implemented in 2024 and requires all pork sold in California to come from breeding pigs housed in systems that provide a minimum of 24 square feet per sow and allow the animals to turn around freely.

Proposed farm bill text clarifies that states and local governments cannot impose a condition or standard on the production of covered livestock unless the livestock is physically located within such state or local government.

A provision prohibiting states from requiring pesticide makers to label their packaging in a way that differs from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidance also has drawn criticism from some groups.

“I know that there’s misinformation out there,” Thompson said. “Let me say right up front, we are not providing any liability shield for bad actors. If you’re a bad actor and you’re manufacturing something that’s going to really hurt people, you’re going to be able to sue.

“I do believe when it comes to pesticide labeling ... we need to move the way that we keep food affordable, and if we have companies that have to comply with 50 different state standards, that’s just going to raise the cost of that product, and that raises the cost of food.”

Illinois Farm Bureau launched an action request calling on members to contact Illinois’ congressional delegation to support the proposed farm bill that will be marked up by the House Ag Committee. The committee was set to begin markup on Monday, Feb. 23, but due to weather concerns the markup along with floor votes were postponed. Committee markup is expected to take place the week of March 2.

A link to the action request can be found online, ilfb.quorum.us/campaign/155789. The action request will be live through the House Ag Committee vote.

Future financial assistance for farmers?

One IFB member asked Thompson for his assessment of whether farmers might see additional economic assistance this year.

With recent years of high input costs, low commodity prices and a global trade war, the soon-to-be distributed $12 billion in bridge payments approved for farmers through the Credit Commodity Corp. is not enough to make up for farmers’ losses, ag groups have said.

Thompson agrees.

“My assessment from the beginning is the amount of money the administration put forward was very generous, but it’s not enough,” he said. “These are difficult and challenging times. It is a bridge payment to get us into the fall.”

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.