On Thursday, August 6, the Senate Agriculture Committee tried to advance a farm bill. It failed by one vote.

Tommy Tuberville sits on that committee. He was at the markup. He was present for other parts of the meeting.

He was not in the room for the final vote.

How one empty chair killed it

The bill went down 10-11.

Tuberville did vote — by proxy, in favor. But proxy votes don't count toward the final majority in committee. You have to be in the room.

Republicans were already short. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been hospitalized and in rehabilitation since June. That was one seat Republicans couldn't fill no matter what.

Tuberville's was a seat they could have.

As the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported, "Republicans were without a majority in the room" because of McConnell's absence, and Tuberville "was also not present during the final vote on the bill, allowing Democrats to win the vote against the bill by one vote."

His office did not respond to requests for comment.

What Alabama lost when the bill died

This is not a procedural footnote. The farm bill sets the rules for crop insurance, disaster payments, conservation programs, marketing assistance, and rural development.

It has not been reauthorized since 2018. Farmers have been operating on extensions for years.

The bill that died on Thursday included things farm groups had been fighting for. The National Corn Growers Association said it was "extremely disappointed," calling it a bill that "was particularly important to corn growers," and warned: "We are running out of time in this Congress."

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said the "stakes are too high" for another year without a farm bill.

Chairman John Boozman, the Arkansas Republican who wrote the bill, said struggling farmers were being held "hostage." He also warned exactly what failure would mean:

"Should this legislation be defeated today, current law will remain in effect, and states who poorly administer SNAP programs will begin to pay for the portion of the benefit cost next year."

Remember that sentence. It matters enormously for Alabama, and Tuberville knows it better than almost anyone in that room.

The bill he skipped was about a bill he voted for

The whole fight was over SNAP — food assistance.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states with SNAP payment error rates above 6% have to start paying a share of their residents' food benefits. Democrats wanted a two-year delay so states could get ready. Boozman offered one year as a compromise and called it his "best and final offer." Democrats said no. The bill died.

Here's the part Alabamians should sit with.

Tuberville voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 1, 2025. That's the law that created this cost-shift in the first place.

And Alabama is one of the states it hits hardest. According to Alabama Daily News, Alabama's SNAP error rate for fiscal year 2025 was 9.52% — up from 8.32% the year before. That puts the state in the 10% cost-share tier. Beginning October 1, 2027, Alabama would owe roughly $174 million to cover its share of food benefit costs.

About 670,000 Alabamians get SNAP. 300,000 of them are children.

So: Tuberville voted for the law that put a $174 million bill on Alabama's desk. Then he sat on the committee handling the relief. Then he wasn't in the room when the vote came.

And he's running to be the one who pays it

Tuberville is not running for re-election to the Senate. He is running for governor of Alabama.

If he wins, he is the person who has to find that $174 million. He would be governor when the bill comes due.

His plan for fixing Alabama's error rate, per Alabama Daily News, is to use AI. He said he and his team plan to use artificial intelligence to bring the rate down to around 5%. The reporting notes he offered no implementation details and no evidence of coordination with the state Department of Human Resources.

That's the plan. Artificial intelligence, no details, for a number that just went the wrong direction two years running.

This is the job, and he keeps not doing it

Skipping the vote is not a one-time thing with Tuberville. It's the shape of his entire Senate career.

In 2023 he spent ten months holding up more than 450 military promotions — generals and admirals included — to protest an unrelated Pentagon policy. He dropped the holds without winning a single policy change.

He has told Alabamians that Social Security is a scam, which we wrote about when he called it a "Ponzi scheme" while collecting about $93,000 in benefits from it.

He has been caught voting in Florida while claiming to live in Alabama.

Now the farm bill — the single most important piece of legislation for the state he wants to govern — failed by one vote, in a room he had walked out of.

What happens next

The committee recessed rather than adjourned, so it can take the bill up again when the Senate returns from its August recess. Ranking member Amy Klobuchar said she is "committed to continuing to work on the bill."

Meanwhile, current law stays in effect. The cost-share requirement is still coming. Alabama farmers still have no farm bill. And 670,000 Alabamians on SNAP, including 300,000 kids, are still in the middle of a fight their senator declined to show up for.

Alabama deserves a senator who is in the room.

Source

Alex Angle, "Senate panel, with Tuberville absent, fails to advance farm bill amid SNAP stalemate," Alabama Daily News, via The Decatur Daily, August 8, 2026. Additional reporting from Cami Koons, Iowa Capital Dispatch.