The 2018 Farm Bill lapsed Sept. 30, 2024, and National Farmers Union (NFU) published an analysis that day outlining the consequences for family operations. The piece, What a Farm Bill Expiration Means for Family Farmers, runs through which commodity, conservation and nutrition programs continue under permanent authority, which programs lapse outright, and what reverting to 1949 farm law would mean for Title I commodities.

Which programs lapse without reauthorization?

Permanent-authority programs — including federal crop insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — continue receiving funding into fiscal 2025. Programs that require periodic reauthorization stop taking new obligations once the Farm Bill expires. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), new dairy margin coverage obligations beyond Sept. 30 signups, and several trade and rural development titles fall into that second bucket.

Existing CRP contracts still pay. New signups and new contracts stall until Congress acts. NFU's analysis flags this paperwork freeze as the most immediate operational hit for growers working with USDA field offices.

What happens to Title I commodity programs?

This is where the headline-grabbing provisions start. Without a new Farm Bill or an extension, farm commodity support reverts to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1949, as incorporated by permanent law. The 1949 statute uses parity prices indexed to a 1910-1914 base period and would, on paper, require USDA to announce and administer supports far above current market-clearing levels. Every previous Farm Bill since 1973 has forestalled that outcome by suspending permanent law. NFU names this as the central reason Congress faces pressure to move.

Dairy is the most-cited case. 1949 law would compel USDA to purchase manufactured dairy products at support prices well above $20 per hundredweight, well above current U.S. all-milk prices, and disrupt commercial dairy markets within months.

Where does federal crop insurance stand?

Crop insurance, administered by USDA's Risk Management Agency through standard reinsurance agreements with private companies, keeps operating. Premium subsidies draw on mandatory appropriations outside the omnibus Farm Bill. NFU notes this gives row-crop operators a stable baseline while Congress debates the broader package.

What's at stake for conservation and beginning farmers?

CRP new enrollments halt. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) faces similar treatment for new obligations. Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grants, which NFU has long championed, also lapse. The Inflation Reduction Act's additional conservation funding — billions earmarked for EQIP, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, and the Conservation Stewardship Program — sits in a parallel funding track and continues, though administration review of climate-smart practice requirements has created uncertainty at USDA.

What is NFU asking Congress to do?

NFU President Rob Larew has pressed publicly for a five-year Farm Bill that strengthens the farm safety net, updates reference prices to reflect 2024 cost of production, and expands beginning-farmer and conservation programs. NFU opposes cutting SNAP benefits to fund commodity title expansions and has urged House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders to move a bipartisan conference report.

What comes next?

Congress typically clears a short-term extension within weeks of expiration to head off permanent-law reversion. The 2024 lapse extended that pattern: a one-year continuing resolution covering Farm Bill programs passed in late December 2024, pushing the substantive reauthorization fight into 2025. The extension bought time, not resolution. The underlying stalemate over reference prices, SNAP work requirements and conservation funding remains unresolved heading into the new Congress.