Angie Craig Presses House Passes Farm Bill, 220-200 Vote

The House passes farm bill on Thursday, April 30, by a 220-200 vote, but the bill left out year-round E15 ethanol language that farm lobbyists wanted. The legislation now moves forward without that provision, while Republican leaders plan a separate vote on E15 when Congress returns from recess in mid-May.

Angie Craig House Floor

Angie Craig, the Minnesota Democratic representative and ranking Democratic member of the House Agriculture Committee, challenged the omission on the House floor before the final vote. She said, "We could expand our domestic markets in this country today," and added, "But we’re going to take [the proposal] away and, ‘Oh, we’ll come back in two more weeks.’"

The bill had largely been on extension since 2023, and the House action advances a package that covers $1.4 billion for crop insurance subsidies, SNAP, and conservation programs. It also leaves in place a push for a later vote on year-round E15 use, even though the law now prohibits that blend in the summer season.

House Agriculture Committee

Glenn "GT" Thompson, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, said Craig was pillorying the bill because it made good politics in her U.S. Senate campaign. Brad Finstad, a Minnesota Republican and committee member, said the legislation addressed "compounding challenges."

The bill also stripped language sought by many Republican adherents of the Make America Healthy Again movement and almost all House Democrats that would have made it difficult for state regulators to individually label pesticides. In another provision, it includes federal pre-emption language that would override a California law mandating larger crates for pigs in barns regardless of the state the animals are raised in.

For crop growers and ethanol producers, the practical question now is whether the separate mid-May vote delivers the year-round E15 language they wanted. The Trump administration approved a waiver allowing year-round E15 for 2026, but the House bill itself does not codify that change.