Case votes against agriculture funding bill over cuts to food assistance, support for Hawaiʻi farmers

US Rep. Ed Case voted against a proposed agriculture appropriations bill on Monday, citing major cuts to food assistance and rural development programs that he says would negatively impact Hawaiʻi families and farmers.

The Fiscal Year 2026 agriculture funding bill, which passed the House Appropriations Committee, proposes a $1 billion cut compared to the current year. Case said he opposed the measure despite successfully securing funding for several Hawaiʻi-specific priorities.

“While the measure funds many critical Hawai‘i priorities, I regrettably had to vote against it because it would cut food assistance for vulnerable families and make it even harder for Hawai‘i farmers to make ends meet,” said Case, who is in his seventh year on Appropriations and previously served on the House Committee on Agriculture.

“At a time when families around the country and our state are struggling with the high cost of living and rising food costs, and when Hawai‘i agriculture is struggling with high production costs and the consequences of the administration’s rash and chaotic tariff war, we should be maintaining our time-tested federal programs, not reducing or even eliminating them.”

Among the proposed cuts, the bill would:

• Cut $100 from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and fails to support cash benefits for fruits and vegetables for WIC.
• Reduces staffing for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), which operates offices across the country that assist farmers in getting federal assistance. The bill provides $110 million less for FSA staffing that what is currently provided.
• Cuts natural resource conservation funding by 5% below FY25 levels.
• Cuts rural housing and water as well as waste-water grants.

Case also opposed the elimination of programs key to Hawaiʻi agriculture, such as the Reimbursement Transportation Cost Payment Program for Geographically Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers and the Micro-Grants for Food Security Program, which supports small-scale local food production.

He further objected to deep reductions in international food aid, including a nearly 50% cut to Food for Peace and a $20 million reduction to the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program.

“Cutting our international food assistance programs is contrary to our values and harms our national security,” Case said. “Global food insecurity leads to political instability, making countries more vulnerable to conflict and extremism, and helping other countries and peoples with their food needs knits together alliances and partnerships which are critical to our national defense.”

Despite his opposition, Case secured continued support for Hawaiʻi in several areas:

• $216 million for combating specialty crop pests
• $123 million for a USDA program preventing the spread of the Brown Tree Snake to Hawaiʻi
• $36 million for USDA agriculture quarantine inspections
• $15 million for minor crop pest management
• $5 million for aquaculture centers and $2 million for aquaculture research
• $1 million for tropical and subtropical agricultural research grants
• $5 million for Native Hawaiian- and Alaska Native-serving educational institutions
• $36 million for agriculture quarantine inspections
• $3 million for canine surveillance of invasive species

The bill also includes directives to strengthen invasive species protections for Hawaiʻi and continue tropical crop research.

A summary of the bill is available here.