In a major win for conservation, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, simply known as the Farm Bill. Farm Bill passage is never easy, but it is vital. The Farm Bill positively impacts countless wildlife species, hunting access, and American families, and the Sportsmen's Alliance applauds its passage in the House.
The Farm Bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation considered by the U.S. Congress. It contains funding and sets policy on items ranging from conservation programs valued by American sportsmen to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits that help feed low-income families. The Conservation Title of the bill outlines and funds numerous programs that benefit sportsmen and wildlife, including the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Improvement Program (VIP-HIP), which create valuable wildlife habitat and provide public hunting access.
"We're incredibly grateful for House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson's leadership on the Farm Bill, generally, and more specifically, his concerns for hunters and conservationists, and his efforts to remove the anti-hunting language from the Farm Bill," said Torin Miller, Associate Litigation Counsel at the Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation. "We'll now focus our efforts on getting a Farm Bill clean of anti-hunting and anti-sporting-dog language passed in the Senate, and eventually, Congress as a whole."
As a result of tireless advocacy by the Sportsmen's Alliance, its members and affiliates, and strong Congressional leadership, the anti-hunting language that was amended into the Farm Bill was previously removed. That language, which was put forth by animal-rights groups, would have banned certain types of hounds and sporting dogs in hunting, as well as the use of "live lures" for training or field trials.
The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee is expected to put forth its own version of the Farm Bill in the coming weeks. The Sportsmen's Alliance is working with Senate leadership to ensure that anti-hunting and sporting-dog language does not make its way into any version of the Senate's Farm Bill. The Senate will adopt and pass some variant of the Farm Bill put forth by the Senate Agriculture Committee, and then leadership in both the House and Senate will reconcile each chamber's version to pass a final, unified Farm Bill.
We're asking members and supporters to reach out to Chairman Thompson and their Representatives to thank them for passing the Farm Bill and removing the anti-hunting language pushed by animal-rights activists. We're also asking members to ask their Senators to support a Senate Farm Bill clean of anti-hunting and anti-sporting dog language.