Washington, D.C. (September 30, 2026) – As the farm bill extension expires at midnight tonight, the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) calls on Congress to stop kicking the can down the road and deliver both a long-term Farm Bill and immediate economic assistance to keep family farms in business.
“America’s wheat growers are out of runway,” said Jamie Kress, NAWG President and Idaho farmer. “Congress allowed the farm bill expire four years in a row. Our farmers are paying $7 for diesel, watching input costs climb while grain prices won’t cover the cost of growing the crop, and absorbing losses for the third and fourth year straight. You cannot run a farm — or lend to one, or build a rural community around one — on expired policy and broken promises. Congress needs to get this done.”
The 2018 Farm Bill extension lapses tonight with no further extension in place, and no new farm bill enacted. And while USDA can keep programs operating administratively through the end of the year farmers need the certainty of a five-year bill — certainty that growers, lenders, and rural communities need heading into the next growing season.
NAWG urges Congress to act on two fronts: pass a comprehensive five-year Farm Bill that strengthens the farm safety net, and provide near-term economic assistance to carry growers through the current farm input cost crisis. Wheat growers face a brutal math — diesel near $7 a gallon, fertilizer prices up sharply, and a farm-gate wheat price around $6.40 a bushel against planting, fertilizing, harvest and storage costs that commonly run $7 to $10 or more.
“Economic assistance for farmers isn’t a bailout — it’s a bridge,” Kress said. “It’s what keeps a multi-generation farm operating until the farm bill’s improved safety net and stronger markets can do their job. Every month Congress waits, more of our growers are making planting and financing decisions without knowing what the rules will be. That’s no way to treat the people who feed this country.”