The Senate passed the budget reconciliation package by a vote of 51 to 50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. This legislation includes provisions to increase the farm safety net and extend tax cuts. It also cuts spending for social programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid.

Congress is attempting to get the bill to the president’s desk by July 4. This could prove challenging as there are differences between the House version and the Senate version. The House will be asked to accept the Senate version, which doesn’t cut spending as much. The House initially passed its version of the bill in May with a razor-thin 215 to 214 vote.

The Senate bill makes a 20% deduction for qualified business income for smaller businesses permanent. It also reinstates the 100% bonus depreciation on equipment and increases the Section 179 deduction for smaller businesses to $2.5 million. The estate tax exemption would be increased to $15 million for single filers and $30 million for married couples, starting in 2026. It would then be indexed for inflation.

A provision would allow income tax resulting from the sale of farmland to a qualified farmer to be paid for in four annual installments instead of all at once. The farmland must have been in agricultural production for the past 10 years to qualify, and it must stay in agricultural production for 10 years after the sale.

To secure the needed votes, the Senate added a provision that would give states with the highest SNAP error rates another two additional years to bring their error rates down before being penalized.

Read more about the status of the reconciliation bill here.