Mitch McConnell Reportedly Returning To Cast Vote On Notorious Pork-Barrel Bill

Republican lawmakers speculated that Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell would return to Capitol Hill in time to vote on a pork-barrel farm bill Wednesday, Politico reported Monday.

McConnell’s staff reportedly told senior Republicans that he would return for a committee meeting to advance the farm bill out of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which stalled during his three-month absence, anonymous sources told Politico. The senator’s staff declined to tell the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday if he would return.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday that he hoped McConnell would return, though he did not confirm or deny whether the return would happen.

The farm bill, titled the Agricultural Act of 2026, contained a long list of programs, including crop insurance, commodity support, nutrition assistance and conservation funding. One of its programs includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides lower-income individuals with financial help for groceries. The bill includes language to allow a year-round nationwide sales of 15% ethanol (E15).

More than 300 agricultural groups urged Congress to pass the bill.

The Senate Agriculture Committee failed to advance the bill in August after every Democrat voted “no.” Democrats opposed provisions requiring states to share the cost of providing SNAP benefits and demanded a two-year delay before implementing new cost-share rules to protect states with high error rates.

McConnell’s presence for the next committee vote would boost the chances of the bill’s advancement.

The House passed its own version called the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026. Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna tried to remove the Save Our Bacon Act, a proposed bill that would prevent state and local governments from regulating how livestock and agricultural products are produced in other states, from the bill.

The House Rules Committee did not allow a floor vote on Luna’s proposed amendment to strip it from the bill.