NAICC News Short May 2026 

By Keith Jones

May 2026

Legislative Action

After weeks of delay, the House on Thursday, April 30, passed Farm Bill 2.0 (H.R. 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026) by a narrow 224-200 vote. The process began the previous day with a contentious House Rules Committee session that, for 24 hours, appeared to threaten the bill’s path forward because of a bitter dispute over year-round E15. House leadership angered farm-state Republicans when, amid pressure from oil-state colleagues, it agreed at the last minute to remove a year-round E15 measure from consideration alongside the farm bill.

When the dust settled, 14 Democrats and one Independent voted in favor of the bill, while three Republicans joined the rest of the Democratic caucus in opposing it. Six members did not vote, producing the 224-200 final tally.

For farm interests, they was weakened by adoption of Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-FL) amendment striking the proposed provisions on pesticide-labeling uniformity, state authority, and protections for the lawful use of federally authorized pesticides. The amendment passed 280-142 with substantial bipartisan support. More broadly, the episode underscored the unusual degree of public engagement in what is typically an arcane policy debate, particularly in the age of MAHA. The debate and vote, unfolding alongside the Supreme Court’s consideration of Monsanto Company v. Durnell, suggested that efforts to revise FIFRA to protect narrow interests carry poor optics and limited political support, especially in an election year.

The bill’s prospects in the Senate appear no easier, as it faces a steep climb to clear the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Agency Action

On May 1, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of its draft Fungicide Strategy as part of the agency’s obligations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). According to EPA, the draft strategy outlines “practical, science-based” protections for more than 1,000 federally listed endangered and threatened species while preserving flexibility for states, growers, and applicators that use fungicide products.

EPA has opened a 60-day public comment period. Comments are due on or before June 29, 2026, and may be submitted to docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2026-2973 at regulations.gov. EPA said it is seeking input from farmers, applicators, scientists, conservation groups, state partners, Tribal partners, and members of the public before finalizing the strategy. The agency expects to issue the final Fungicide Strategy no later than November 2026.

EPA also will host a public webinar on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. EDT to provide an overview of the draft strategy, discuss how it will be implemented through registration and registration review, and answer questions from the public. Additional information is available at the posted webinar link.

On Thursday, May 21, the FIFRA Endangered Species Task Force (FESTF) also will host a webinar from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern to discuss EPA’s new draft strategy.

The FESTF webinar will provide an overview of EPA’s draft Fungicide Strategy, highlighting major themes and mitigation measures in the new proposal and across the final herbicide and insecticide strategies.

Registration is required to attend. See: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ac773660-66e0-47d4-be45-dd96db17d8e8@b9703258-6a38-4a5e-ba48-d0aa8d1757ce

Other News

USDA’s plan to relocate employees across its component agencies to regional hubs outside the Washington, D.C., area continues to draw attention. Although the administration has said it expects fewer employees to decline relocation offers than in prior efforts, two unions representing affected USDA employees argue that the moves will cause more disruption than department leaders anticipate.

For the second time in seven years, USDA is seeking to move Washington-based employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City. When USDA relocated hundreds of ERS and NIFA positions there in 2019, roughly 85% of affected employees resigned or retired rather than move. The American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, which represents USDA researchers, expects comparable results this year. An internal survey conducted by the union found that 76% of its members do not plan to relocate. AFGE Local 3403 said in a statement that the relocations, which are expected to take effect by the end of the summer, will trigger a “brain drain” within the department.

SPOTLIGHT ON SUSTAINING MEMBER: Acre Blitz

By Kim Brown

ESA Mitigations and the Crop Consultant: How Acre Blitz Eases the Burden

Endangered Species Act (ESA) mitigation requirements are now appearing on pesticide labels. Growers may rely on crop consultants to assist in ESA compliance efforts. Before any applications are made with products that have ESA label language, applicators should verify field-level mitigation. For example, the re-registered dicamba over-the-top products, most fields require a minimum of 3 runoff mitigation points from EPA’s mitigation menu, and up to 6 in Pesticide Use Limitation Areas (PULA). At this time there are only a few products, however EPA’s ESA strategy is expanding across more products every year.

A Daunting Task

The challenge is that compliance lives in multiple places: EPA’s Mitigation Menu, Bulletins Live! Two, and individual product labels. Sorting through all this information for every field, every season, is an onerous task. For independent consultants managing thousands of acres across many growers using the manual approach simply isn’t sustainable. The legal exposure of getting it wrong is real.

Months of Work, Down to Minutes

Acre Blitz was built to solve this problem. The platform brings everything together in one place, automating the ESA compliance process at the field level. Advisors can import grower fields, and the platform automatically pulls county-level mitigation points, soil types, hydrologic zones, and slope data. Available mitigation points are assigned automatically, and compliance reports are generated pre-filled with field data. Advisors can select other mitigation options for that grower and specific fields to document mitigation points. Consultants can access data in real time through the Advisor Tool and manage mitigations for each grower’s field. What once took months of piecing together information from government databases now takes minutes.

A Special Offer for NAICC Members

Acre Blitz is proud to support the independent crop consulting profession and would like to help NAICC members access the Advisor Tool at a significant discount. Introductory pricing is available now:

• •        NAICC Members: $0.15 per acre
• •        Non-NAICC Members: $0.30 per acre

These are introductory rates — don’t miss your window. Sign up today at acreblitz.com/advisor-signup.

Acre Blitz provides ESA compliance infrastructure for agriculture. Learn more at acreblitz.com.