Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026: What Rural Organizations Need to Know

The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, as a five-year reauthorization of federal agricultural and rural development programs covering fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it must pass before being sent to the President for signature. It is not enacted law. The programs and funding levels described below represent what the House approved. Final outcomes may change through Senate action or a conference process.

This analysis focuses exclusively on provisions relevant to rural nonprofits, municipalities and special districts, K-12 schools and small colleges, and rural small businesses. It does not cover commodity, trade, or crop insurance titles except where those provisions directly affect rural community organizations.

What This Bill Does Overall

H.R. 7567 reauthorizes the full suite of USDA Rural Development programs that lapsed after fiscal year 2023. It does not eliminate any major rural development program and in several cases raises authorized funding ceilings. The most consequential changes for rural community organizations are concentrated in Title VI (Rural Development), Title IV (Nutrition), Title IX (Energy), and Title II (Conservation). This bill covers only USDA programs. It does not authorize or modify programs at HUD, EDA, EPA, DOT, or FEMA.

Most programs in the rural development title are discretionary, meaning Congress must still appropriate actual dollars each fiscal year before USDA can award grants or loans. The authorization levels shown here are ceilings, not guarantees. A smaller number of programs are funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation and do not require annual appropriations action. Those are identified where relevant.

Agency and Program Breakdown

Broadband and Connectivity

The ReConnect Rural Broadband Program is renamed, restructured, and reauthorized at $350 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The priority hierarchy explicitly favors unserved communities lacking 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload service, followed by communities under 10,000 population and communities in persistent poverty counties, socially vulnerable communities, and economically distressed areas. A grant-only application track is created for the first time. Minimum service standards for funded projects rise to 50 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up, with tiered buildout requirements depending on award term length. USDA must issue new program regulations within 270 days of enactment.

The Innovative Broadband Advancement Program is reauthorized at $10 million per year and adds a satellite broadband subsidy track covering equipment purchase and installation costs for low-income households and essential community facilities in frontier and remote areas.

The Community Connect Grant Program raises its speed floor from 10 Mbps to 25 Mbps down. A new broadband mapping grant program, capped at $50,000 per award, is created to help rural entities challenge inaccurate coverage data on the FCC National Broadband Map.

Water and Wastewater

All water and wastewater programs are reauthorized through fiscal year 2031. A new zero-percent and one-percent interest loan category is created for distressed rural water and wastewater systems serving households at or below 80 percent of nonmetropolitan median income. The Rural Water and Wastewater Circuit Rider Program is written into permanent law with a national mandate covering all 50 states and explicit technical assistance categories, including operational, managerial, and financial assistance and disaster recovery support. Emergency and imminent community water assistance grants are reauthorized through fiscal year 2031. The decentralized water systems program sets a $20,000 maximum loan or subgrant per individual water well or wastewater system.

Rural Health

The Rural Health Care Facility Technical Assistance Program is newly established in law. USDA will provide direct technical assistance to eligible rural health care facilities covering operational improvement, financial management, electronic health records implementation, and quality improvement planning. Priority goes to existing USDA borrowers and grantees, facilities in health professional shortage areas, and medically underserved areas. Eligible facility types include critical access hospitals, rural health clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and community health centers.

The Distance Learning and Telemedicine program is reauthorized at $82 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The set-aside for rural health facilities is expanded beyond substance use disorder treatment to cover mental health, behavioral health, and maternal health services.

Rural Business and Economic Development

Rural Business Development Grants, Rural Cooperative Development Grants, the Intermediary Relending Program, the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program, and the Strategic Economic and Community Development program are all reauthorized through fiscal year 2031.

The RISE Grant Program, which funds jobs accelerators in rural communities, is expanded to allow area career and technical education schools as anchor partners and adds career pathway programs as an eligible program type alongside jobs accelerators.

Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loans are set in law at a maximum of $40 million per loan, available to businesses that aggregate, process, store, or distribute food for producers within 80 miles of the facility.

New meat processing and rendering grants are authorized at $3 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. Individual grants are capped at $500,000 with a 90 percent federal share for awards at or under $100,000 and a 75 percent federal share for larger awards. Small and very small establishments receive explicit application priority.

The expedited Business and Industry guaranteed loan process is now permanent for loans under $400,000, and up to $600,000 where default risk is low.

Energy

The Rural Energy for America Program is reauthorized through fiscal year 2031. The maximum grant ceiling within the program rises from $25 million to $50 million. Agricultural cooperatives with fewer than 2,500 employees are added as eligible entities. A 10 percent reserve of annual program obligations is directed toward underutilized renewable technologies. Waste energy recovery is added as a qualifying technology type.

Nutrition and Food Access

Emergency food assistance infrastructure grants and commodity availability under the Emergency Food Assistance Program are reauthorized through fiscal year 2031.

The Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities Program is newly created, authorized at $200 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. Cooperative agreements go to eligible entities, including nonprofits with food distribution experience, to purchase locally produced food and distribute it through food access organizations.

The Healthy Food Financing Initiative authorization ceiling rises from $125 million to $135 million.

Conservation

The federal cost-share rate for rehabilitation of aging structural measures under the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act is raised from 65 percent to 90 percent. This applies to flood control structures experiencing accelerated deterioration, structures where planned service life exceeds component service life, or structures damaged by storms exceeding their design standard.

By Organization Type

K-12 Schools and Small Colleges

K-12 schools face the most immediate compliance obligation in this bill. Beginning with the first school year after enactment, school food authorities must purchase at least 95 percent domestic products within each USDA-designated food purchase category. Poultry and seafood imported from China or Russia are prohibited outright, with no waiver authority. Schools should audit current procurement relationships against these requirements before the first applicable school year.

Whole milk is restored as a permitted option under the school breakfast program, which is an immediate operational change for participating schools.

For broadband, elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education are explicitly named as community anchor institutions in the broadband priority scoring framework. A school or college that anchors a broadband application submitted by a rural electric cooperative or municipality strengthens that application's competitive position.

For small rural colleges and career and technical education centers, the RISE Grant Program expansion creates a new pathway to anchor job accelerator and career pathway grants in partnership with local workforce development boards and industry partners.

The Distance Learning and Telemedicine reauthorization at $82 million per year is directly accessible to small rural colleges that serve as training hubs for health care workforce programs.

Municipalities and Special Districts

The single most immediately actionable item in this bill for many rural municipalities is the watershed rehabilitation cost-share increase from 65 percent to 90 percent. Rural cities, counties, and special districts that maintain NRCS-assisted flood control structures and have been deferring rehabilitation because the prior 35 percent local match was unaffordable should connect with their NRCS state conservationist once this bill is enacted. Demand for this improved cost-share rate is expected to be high.

The new zero-percent and one-percent interest loan category for distressed water and wastewater systems is a direct tool for municipalities operating financially stressed water systems serving lower-income rural communities. Eligibility turns on the income profile of the households served and the financial condition of the system itself.

The Expanding Childcare in Rural America Initiative gives priority scoring to childcare facility applications under the Essential Community Facilities program and the Business and Industry loan program from fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2029. Municipalities and counties exploring childcare as an economic development project should move applications early in fiscal year 2027 to capture this priority window.

Rural municipalities that operate within broadband-underserved areas are eligible to apply for the new broadband mapping grants of up to $50,000 to document coverage gaps and support challenges to the FCC National Broadband Map, which directly affects the eligibility of their service territory for ReConnect and other federal broadband programs.

The Rural Development Innovation Center, newly established within USDA Rural Development, is tasked with reducing application processing delays and improving technical assistance delivery across Rural Development loan and grant programs.

Rural Nonprofits

Rural health nonprofits, including rural health clinics, critical access hospitals, and Federally Qualified Health Centers, are named eligible participants in the new Rural Health Care Facility Technical Assistance Program. This program provides operational, financial, and electronic health records assistance through USDA at no cost to the receiving organization. Health professional shortage area designation and medically underserved area status improve priority standing for selection.

Community action agencies and food banks benefit from Emergency Food Assistance Program reauthorization through fiscal year 2031 and from the new Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities program, which authorizes $200 million per year in cooperative agreements. Nonprofits with documented food distribution experience are explicitly eligible as partnering or lead organizations.

Nonprofit organizations are eligible entities for the new broadband technical assistance grants, which fund organizations that help rural communities prepare broadband applications, conduct feasibility studies, and collect coverage data.

The community health set-aside expansion within the Distance Learning and Telemedicine program to include behavioral health, mental health, and maternal health directly benefits rural health nonprofits that provide these services and are seeking to expand telemedicine capacity.

Rural cooperative development centers organized as nonprofit institutions can receive renewable annual grant awards for the same development center under the revised Rural Cooperative Development Grants provisions, providing a degree of continuity funding that was not previously guaranteed.

Rural Small Businesses

Small and very small meat processing establishments receive explicit application priority under the new meat processing and rendering grants, which offer up to $500,000 per award with a 90 percent federal share for smaller projects. Eligible uses include feasibility studies, regulatory compliance, mobile processing infrastructure, equipment, and cold storage.

The Rural Energy for America Program grant ceiling increase to $50 million primarily benefits larger renewable energy projects, but rural small businesses pursuing energy efficiency or renewable energy installations remain eligible under existing program tiers. The new reserve fund for underutilized renewable technologies may open opportunities for businesses exploring less-common applications such as waste energy recovery.

Food supply chain guaranteed loans up to $40 million are available to rural small businesses engaged in food aggregation, processing, storage, or distribution, including those serving producers within 80 miles, which fits regional food hub and value-added processing operations.

The expedited Business and Industry guaranteed loan track for loans under $400,000 reduces processing friction for smaller rural businesses that have historically faced long wait times for loan guarantee decisions.

Compliance and Regulatory Considerations

School meals Buy American requirements take effect at the start of the first school year after enactment and carry no waiver authority except for commodities USDA formally lists as domestically unavailable. School food authorities should treat this as an immediate procurement audit priority.

The ReConnect program's new ten-year minimum grant agreement and tiered buildout standards are more demanding than prior round requirements. Organizations that have been planning broadband projects under the old program structure should revisit project designs, speed commitments, and financial projections before new rules are finalized.

The Circuit Rider Program's permanent mandate includes explicit Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act compliance benchmarks. Rural water systems receiving circuit rider assistance should expect that compliance gaps, if identified, will be documented and may generate corrective action timelines.

Watershed rehabilitation cost-share applications under the new 90 percent federal share rate will be governed by the cost-share rate established in the original local organization agreement. Some existing agreements may require renegotiation before a rehabilitation application can proceed under the improved rate.

Matching fund requirements apply to meat processing grants above $100,000 (25 percent non-federal share), RISE grants, and rural cooperative development grants. No changes to the 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance framework are contained in this bill.

What to Watch

The Senate has not yet taken up H.R. 7567. Key variables that could alter the provisions described here include Senate committee markup, floor amendments, and a potential conference process if the Senate passes a substantially different version. Programs with mandatory Commodity Credit Corporation funding will take effect upon enactment. Discretionary programs require subsequent annual appropriations action before USDA can award grants or loans. The Rural Impact Group will monitor both the Senate's progress on this bill and the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process running in parallel.