Illustration: Natalie Peeples / Axios
Senate appropriators on Thursday unanimously approved an FY26 Agriculture-FDA spending bill, 27–0, after debating amendments on hemp and the Agricultural Research Service.
Why it matters: The bill maintains FDA funding at essentially FY25 levels, like the House version, insulating the agency from major cuts.
- Congress appears headed toward another continuing resolution to keep the government funded past Sept. 30.
What's inside: The Senate Appropriations Committee customarily approves spending bills before revealing the full text, so final numbers weren't immediately available.
- Full text will be posted on the committee's webpage sometime Thursday.
- Appropriations Ranking Member Patty Murray said the bill has targeted increases for food safety, WIC and other agriculture-related programs.
- Ag-FDA subcommittee Chair John Hoeven said the funding level for the bill was at 1% above the enacted FY25 continuing resolution.
- Hoeven said the 302(b) allocation of $21.7 billion was "the exact same number" that Senate appropriators allocated last year. He also said that the FDA and the Food Safety Inspection Service were fully funded.
State of play: Ag-FDA was among the first and least controversial of the appropriations bills that senators marked up, with battles ahead for Labor-HHS, Commerce-Justice-State and other titles.
- The House has passed only the Milcon-VA bill. Its Appropriations Committee advanced a handful of bills including Ag-FDA on party-line votes.
- The House would fund the FDA at a relatively flat $6.79 billion, which is in line with President Trump's budget request.
