Status on Capitol Hill: October 10, 2025
From ELCA Advocacy, October 10, 2025. As of this day in October 2025, the Farm Bill has expired, leaving critical hunger networks and many in rural communities in policy limbo. It was last reauthorized in 2018 and temporarily extended through September 30, 2025. This comprehensive legislation traditionally governs SNAP nutrition assistance, rural infrastructure, agricultural research, and farm-to-food bank connections that many of our congregations and social ministry organizations depend upon to serve those in need.
With the Farm Bill’s expiration, lawmakers have the opportunity to craft new legislation that strengthens our ability to support the hungry and those of us in the greatest need. We urge our representatives to support a renewed Farm Bill that prevents upcoming barriers to SNAP benefits, recognizing that these programs are lifelines for struggling families in our communities—including many in rural America facing mounting economic pressures from tariffs, declining commodity prices, and rising production costs.
The expiration has particularly impacted “orphan” programs, which have lacked reliable funding since 2023 – including agricultural research programs, scholarships for young farmers, and oversubscribed conservation programs. International feeding initiatives, such as Food for Peace and the McGovern-Dole school feeding program—which provide meals to hungry children worldwide—face uncertain futures. Domestically, farm-to-food bank programs that connect agricultural abundance with hungry neighbors have lost critical support, straining food ministries operated by Lutheran Social Services, church food pantries, and other faith-based hunger relief ministries already stretched thin by increased demand.
Congregations often witness firsthand how families who steward the land and feed our nation are themselves struggling. Through Action Alerts and federal advocacy, we ask lawmakers to restore these vital programs and support policies that uplift both rural communities and the vulnerable populations our faith compels us to serve.
The Farm Bill
The Farm Bill, which guides much of U.S. agriculture, rural and food policy, is currently being debated in Congress. The ELCA urges Congress to pass a 2024 Farm Bill that promotes:
food for hungry neighbors at home and abroad,
healthy rural and farming communities,
inclusion of people of all backgrounds,
care of creation to feed future generations
In a world of abundance, we strive for an end to hunger and poverty, and towards a just world where all are fed. Additionally, we are to work with each other and the environment to meet needs without causing undue burdens elsewhere. The Farm Bill is one of the most influential pieces of legislation affecting hunger and conservation in the U.S. and around the world.
Our social statements call for policies that provide adequate nutrition for all and create livelihood opportunities that are genuinely sustainable. We urge lawmakers to pass a 2024 Farm Bill that reflects these faith-based values.