Welch Reintroduces Bicameral ‘RISE Act’ to Improve and Expand USDA Grant Program, Create Jobs in Rural America
Support legislation to reauthorize and improve the USDA RISE program.
Occurrences
Evidence
The vote table shows Peter Welch among the senators supporting the 60-40 Senate passage of H.R. 5371, the bill to reopen the government.
Division E, section 5002 continues the authorities provided by the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 and related provisions through September 30, 2026.
Assessments
Welch appears to have supported a 2025 funding/extenders package that continued underlying farm-bill authorities through September 30, 2026, which is relevant to keeping USDA rural/agriculture programs alive. But the provided evidence does not show a RISE-specific reauthorization bill or any documented improvement to the USDA RISE program itself. Because his support is real but the outcome shown is only an indirect extension rather than a clear reauthorization-and-improvement of RISE, this is best scored as partial credit in the same federal term.