WASHINGTON (DTN) -- The Senate Agriculture Committee's farm bill markup Thursday is expected to revive many of the debates that have simmered beneath weeks of bipartisan negotiations.

Among the amendments already filed are mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL), offered by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.; Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa's Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act; and a proposal to codify the rescinded Packers and Stockyards Act rules affecting poultry.

Sen. Slotkin, D-Mich., will introduce a mandatory base acre update amendment to "realign the farm safety net with the actual risks that farmers are facing by resetting base acres on farms based on the five-year average of plantings (including acres prevented from planting) from 2021-2025." The amendment and its explanatory text viewed by DTN claimed "all producers whose farm program payments reflect the crops they've actually been growing will see their safety net increase by roughly 20%."

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., plans to pursue amendments on farm payment reforms, including changes to the definition of "actively engaged in farming," a $310,000 payment limit per farming operation and the removal of double payments for spouses -- a longtime point of advocacy for Grassley.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., also have amendments to restore $2 billion in conservation funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

Additional proposals seek to increase transparency in fertilizer, seed and fuel pricing, and reorganize USDA's crop input economics responsibilities among many not publicly released or known to DTN.

While Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., has worked to craft a bipartisan bill, amendments offer senators their first opportunity to publicly reshape the legislation.

The committee spent Tuesday night processing amendments ahead of the markup, but the bill's path out of committee remains uncertain. Committee leaders have urged stakeholders to make as few changes as possible because any amendments could jeopardize the bill, two sources who spoke with DTN said.

Democrats have rejected Republicans' proposal to delay state SNAP cost-sharing requirements by one year, and Boozman acknowledged Tuesday that the proposal "needs to be adjusted."

Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., spoke briefly to DTN at the Farmfest show in southern Minnesota after holding a debate for the governor's race.

Klobuchar said she wanted to see the bill advance out of committee on Thursday, but the SNAP provisions would remain the biggest challenge to advancing the bill.

"I want to get it done. There's no doubt about it," she said. "There's some great things in the bill, including year-round E15," she said. Klobuchar left Farmfest immediately after her debate to return to Washington.

Senate Democrats met privately Tuesday afternoon, though Grassley told reporters Wednesday morning he had not heard of any breakthrough.

With Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., absent from the committee, Republicans lack the votes to advance strictly partisan provisions. Under Senate proxy voting rules, McConnell cannot cast a deciding vote, meaning at least one Democrat would need to support the bill if the committee splits along party lines.

MCOOL

Mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL) is supported by cattle organizations like R-CALF and the United States Cattlemen's Association, which hold that any meat sold in the United States should be labeled by the country it is produced and packed in.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) received waves of negative social media attention after calling out Republican senators for considering it last week. Following that attention, independent cattle associations found it as their window to move the legislation forward.

"This is one of the best opportunities we've had to restore MCOOL for beef," R-CALF said on social platform X.

CONSERVATION FUNDING

According to a source familiar with the amendment language, Klobuchar and Bennet will each offer amendments to restore conservation funding after both the Republican framework and Boozman's bill proposed reductions to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

See: Senate Farm Bill Would Cut $1.9 Billion From EQIP, Fund New Forest and State Conservation Programs: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Klobuchar's amendment would eliminate proposed cuts to both EQIP and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). It also would create a 30% EQIP set-aside for small farms, expand eligible conservation practices, authorize soil health testing and require additional USDA data collection. The amendment has been sent to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring.

Bennet's amendment is narrower, simply striking the proposed funding reductions to EQIP and CSP while preserving current conservation funding instead of redirecting those dollars to the Forest Conservation Easement Program. The amendment has not yet been scored.

PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS

Grassley said Wednesday his amendment to include the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act would "strengthen accountability in the meatpacking industry."

The proposal would establish a USDA investigative office with subpoena authority to pursue anticompetitive practices. "The government ought to be a referee to make sure people keep their obligations to you, considering your early investment," he said.

Another Grassley amendment would codify the three Packers and Stockyards Act rules the administration proposed to eliminate following USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins' decision to withdraw them. The proposal would establish statutory enforcement authority for those provisions. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also co-authored this amendment.

USDA PAYMENTS

The Slotkin base acre update would expand the share of base acres used to calculate ARC and PLC payments, increasing payment acres by 15 percentage points across all programs.

Under the proposal, ARC-County and PLC payments would be calculated on 100% of a producer's base acres, compared with the current 85% factor. ARC-Individual payments would increase from 65% to 80% of base acres.

The amendment also would remove sequestration reductions on ARC and PLC payments, which have lowered producer payments by more than 5% in recent years. According to text reviewed by DTN, the amendment would save taxpayers $1.734 billion over 10 years after accounting for reinvestment.

Grassley also has amendments to transfer the responsibilities of USDA's crop input economist to other agency offices and require additional reporting on fertilizer, seed and fuel price trends.

During consideration of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Grassley was expected to pursue amendments on payment limits and updating base acres. During consideration of the reconciliation bill earlier this year, Boozman persuaded Grassley not to offer the proposal. Sen. Welch will instead. According to a list of 42 filed amendments, Welch has proposed several changes aimed at tightening farm program payment eligibility and limits.

His amendments would cap commodity program payments at $310,000 per farming operation for individuals qualifying through active personal management, require those individuals to contribute labor to receive payments from more than one farming operation, and define a "significant contribution of active personal management" as the lesser of 500 management hours or 25% of the operation's total management hours while limiting each farming operation to one person qualifying under that standard.

Welch also seeks to reduce the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payment limit back to $125,000, reversing the increase enacted last year. Another amendment would eliminate the provision allowing spouses or the estates of deceased spouses to receive full farm program payments unless they independently qualify as actively engaged in farming.

Sen. Welch list of farm program amendments: https://www.welch.senate.gov/…

Jake Zajkowski can be reached at jake.zajkowski@dtn.com

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