The U.S. Senate Reconvenes September 14th and will pick up the Farm Bill Again

The fight over pesticide protections has moved to The U.S. Senate — where “Poison Pill” sections of the Bill are still threatening public health. On August 6th, Agriculture Committee Democrats voted “No” on the GOP Farm Bill Draft, effectively stalling it from moving to the full Senate. When the U.S. Senate reconvenes on September 14th, the Senate Ag Committee will consider what's next. Tell your Senators to urge their colleagues on the Senate Agriculture Committee, including ranking member Amy Klobuchar, to continue to vote "NO" on Farm Bill 2.0, the Agricultural Act of 2026.

Take one minute to send Senators Van Hollen and Alsobrooks an email using "Start Writing" to the right.

The latest Senate Republican Farm Bill mark-up, released by Senator John Boozman (R-AR), contains provisions threatening the health of Marylanders and all life. We expect the GOP to continue to work on the markup when the U.S. Senate reconvenes this month. This bill would weaken pesticide oversight, delay safety protections, and increase reliance on toxic chemical agriculture. There also remain multiple instances of language that threatens health and biodiversity.

What the Senate Farm Bill would do:

• Increase dependence on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

• Delay hundreds of pesticide safety reviews until 2031, and give pesticide manufacturers and corporations greater influence over EPA safeguards, threatening our babies, bees, the Bay and more.

• Threaten the integrity of the organic food standard by reducing oversight of organic production and minimizing the influence of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB).

• Favor large agribusiness over small and medium sized family farms.

• Ignore hunger by failing to reverse the unprecedented $187 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), instead only delaying them for one year and not 2 years as Senate Dems request.

Tell your Senators to urge that their colleagues on the Agriculture Committee including ranking member Amy Klobuchar to continue to vote “NO” on the Senate Farm Bill to:

✅  Protect Maryland’s residents, farmers, workers, pollinators, and the environment from the “Poison Pills” that weaken pesticide oversight, delay safety protections, and increase reliance on toxic chemical agriculture.

✅  Choose Marylanders and family farms over corporate agribusinesses.

✅  Extend the 2018 Farm Bill, which would better protect the health of the public, family farmers, pollinators, our waterways, the air we breathe, the water we drink and food security!

Together, we can ensure that communities and farmers — not pesticide manufacturers — have the power to protect their farms, our health and the environment.

Please take one minute to send them an email now, just click "Start Writing" to the right.

Thank you,
Ruth, Sean, Gabi & Bonnie
Smart on Pesticides Coalition (SOPC)
A coalition of 100+ organizations working to protect public health, communities, pollinators, and the environment from pesticide harms, facilitated by the Md. Pesticide Education Network.