Bill > HR7142

This bill, known as the Advancing Cutting Edge Agriculture Act or ACE Agriculture Act, makes significant changes to the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AGARDA), a program focused on agricultural innovation. Primarily, it removes the "pilot" designation from AGARDA, effectively making its authorization permanent, and increases its funding. The bill expands AGARDA's objectives to explicitly include water conservation technologies, environmental sustainability, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing resilience to various threats like extreme weather, diseases, and pests. It also clarifies AGARDA's reporting structure within the Department of Agriculture, ensuring the Director reports to the Chief Scientist and not to heads of other departmental programs. Furthermore, the bill allows AGARDA to utilize existing personnel authorities for hiring qualified staff and mandates the use of a strategic plan for its administration. The funding for AGARDA is significantly increased, with appropriations of $100,000,000 for each fiscal year from 2027 through 2032, and it permits the use of other available departmental funds, with a specific exclusion for funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7142/all-info