Indiana Farm Bureau has announced its priorities for the 2026 legislative session, which they’ve boiled down into three general topics.
“On a top level they are: encouraging investment in agriculture, strengthening rural communities, and supporting farms and farmers,” says Katie Nelson, the new Executive Director of Public Policy for Indiana Farm Bureau.
On the latest episode of the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, she tells Hoosier Ag Today that the policy priorities for next year are purposely broad-based, since the priorities for the legislative session earlier this year were laser-focused on two specific issues.
“Last year’s priorities where water and taxes, and so we were intentionally a little bit more broad this year, but it does allow us to cover a wider breadth of topics because it’s difficult to know what the legislature is going to have an appetite for. Also, the issues that our members are facing are also wide, and so it’s hard to be able to say we just want to focus on this one issue, so we wanted to give us give ourselves that room,” she says.
On a side note, one major topic that’s been getting a lot of attention here in Indiana has been the push by President Trump and his administration to get state lawmakers on board to redraw the maps for Indiana’s nine Congressional districts. At this juncture, there are still a lot of unanswered questions whether Governor Mike Braun (R-IN) will call a Special Session before the end of the year to address that topic.
“It’s kind of sucked the air out of the room right now,” says Nelson. “Will they go into a Special Session? How long will it be if they do it? If they do it, will normal the legislative session be shorter than even a regular short legislative session? How much time will there be? How much of an appetite will there be to focus on things that our members care about, or will [state lawmakers] be all consumed with redistricting?”
INFB says its leaders and staff will meet with state lawmakers to discuss the organization’s policy priorities for the upcoming 2026 legislative session at their annual Organization Day Breakfast held at the Statehouse on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
CLICK BELOW to learn more about Indiana Farm Bureau’s legislative priorities on the latest episode of the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast featuring Katie Nelson, INFB’s new Executive Director of Public Policy.
