Bill funds USDA, farm programs, and food checks for 2027.
H.R. 8646 — Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, 2027 · Filed by Andy Harris (R-MD) · Introduced May 1, 2026 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill gives money to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the year 2027. It pays for farm loans, rural housing, and research. It also pays for food checks and land protection programs. The bill includes a small program to help rural hospitals. It also includes a program to keep housing for farm workers.
Who it affects
The bill affects farmers, rural areas, and people who buy food. It funds food checkers, researchers, and rural housing programs. Rural hospitals and farm workers also get help from the bill.
One thing to notice
Nonprofit groups that run rural housing programs can now collect fees. They can also earn money on their investments. The Secretary of Agriculture can use flexible methods to help farm workers. These methods include reducing loan interest and deferring payments.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- May 1, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 548”
- Jun 4, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 213 - 210 (Roll no. 205)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
190 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 195 reports from Mar 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $50,756,522 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 6 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 100% of bills with any report.
Andy Harris, who sponsored the bill, received $489,560 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — $7,360,000 in 1 report
- Altria Client Services LLC — $3,200,000 in 1 report
- American Chemistry Council — $2,570,000 in 1 report
- Amgen Inc — $2,440,000 in 1 report
- Pmi Us Corporate Services Inc. (fka Pmi Global Services Inc.) — $2,350,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- rural housing programs — Government efforts to help people in farm areas buy or fix up homes.
- food checks — Government inspections to make sure food is clean and safe to eat.
- land protection programs — Government work to protect and manage soil, water, and forests.
- farm workers — People who harvest crops or work on farms.
- Secretary of Agriculture — The head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (50,094 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 23, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-01.
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