Sen. Chair John Boozman (R-Arkansas), chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, this week released a proposal to reauthorize the Farm Bill, which governs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs.
While the most recent Farm Bill — the Agriculture Improvement Act — expired in 2023, several bipartisan and partisan reauthorization proposals have failed to advance over the past three years. In May, the House passed its reauthorization bill — the Food, Farm and National Security Act — teeing up a final opportunity for enactment in the 119th Congress.
Labeled “Discussion Draft,” the new Senate text is extremely minimal in terms of new programs or policy changes compared to previous Senate iterations or versions introduced in the House.
To the disappointment of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the draft does not currently include a new grant program for community college agricultural and renewable resources programs or any changes to existing USDA workforce development or research programs that would increase community colleges’ ability to participate. Because the proposal is a discussion draft, AACC hopes that the committee will add in new support for community colleges during a markup.
The bipartisan Community College Agricultural Advancement Act (CCAAA) is a key proposal in this area. Long endorsed by AACC and recently reintroduced in the Senate, the bill would authorize $20 million for new capacity-building grants for community college agriculture workforce development programs. A companion version of the legislation was also introduced in the House. CCAAA has been included in several previous Farm Bill reauthorization proposals. A provision inspired by the legislation was recently included in the House-approved Farm Bill.
AACC sees the 2026 Farm Bill as a key opportunity to deliver essential support for community college programs that build the agricultural workforce. We urge community colleges with agriculture or renewable resources programs to ask their senators to include CCAAA, or a similar proposal, in the Farm Bill.
