Congress expands mental health crisis support for farmers facing epidemic stress

What it does

This bill reauthorizes and expands the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, a federal program that provides mental health and crisis support to farmers and ranchers. It increases annual funding from $10 million to $15 million for fiscal years 2026–2030, explicitly includes crisis lines as an eligible service, and allows grant recipients to partner with community mental health clinics, rural health centers, and hospitals to connect farmers to behavioral health treatment and substance-use support.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is straightforward: it increases funding for an existing mental health crisis-support program serving farmers and ranchers, expands eligible services to include crisis lines, and authorizes partnerships with community health providers. This is a public-health measure, not a tax or regulatory carve-out.

What the text implies

• Explicit authorization of crisis lines may signal recognition of elevated suicide risk in agricultural communities; the expansion suggests prior program limitations were inadequate to meet demand.
• Referral partnerships with Federally Qualified Health Centers and rural health clinics may improve care access in underserved agricultural regions, but effectiveness depends on whether those providers have capacity and expertise in farm-specific stressors (debt, commodity prices, weather).
• The bill does not specify funding mechanisms or appropriations; reauthorization authority does not guarantee Congress will appropriate the full $15M annually—actual benefit depends on future budget action.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Farmers and ranchers—a population with elevated suicide and mental health crisis rates—gain expanded access to crisis intervention, behavioral health counseling, and substance-use treatment through increased funding and explicit authorization of crisis lines and referral partnerships. The bill removes barriers to care and increases resources available to a vulnerable occupational group.

Who stands to gain

• Community behavioral health clinics
• Rural health centers
• Federally qualified health centers
• Critical access hospitals

Named in the bill

Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, Section 7522, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Rural Health Clinics, Critical Access Hospitals, Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, Public Health Service Act, Social Security Act

Where it stands

11 cosponsors: 7 Republicans, 4 Democrats.

• Jul 15, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Jul 15, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

3 lobbying clients named this bill on 6 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,240,409 in lobbying spend. A filing names 34 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.

Tammy Baldwin, the sponsor, reported $195,336 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• American Farm Bureau Fed — $720,409 on 3 filings
• American Psychological Association Services Inc.(fka American Psychological Assn — $340,000 on 1 filing
• Farmers Educational Cooperative Union of America — $180,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.