Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens AGARDA's R&D focus, staffing, and capacity to advance water-conserving and climate-resilient agriculture, but creates funding ambiguities and broad reprogramming and authority changes that could reduce oversight and allow funds to be diverted from other USDA priorities.
Farmers and agricultural researchers will get expanded R&D support for water-conserving technologies and climate-resilience efforts through AGARDA, increasing development of tools and practices to protect farm productivity.
Communities in drought-prone and rural areas will benefit from investments in water and greenhouse-gas mitigation technologies, improving local resilience to climate impacts.
AGARDA will have greater operational capacity because the bill clarifies personnel authority and allows access to additional unobligated departmental funds, making it easier to hire or reassign qualified staff and run programs.
Taxpayers and state governments face a risk that the Secretary can reprogram 'other unobligated funds,' allowing money to be diverted from existing USDA programs or priorities without explicit new appropriations.
Farmers and researchers face uncertainty because a typographical error and unclear appropriation language leave the actual funding levels for FY2027–2031 ambiguous.
State and local governments, federal employees, and the public may see reduced oversight and coordination because the bill narrows who must collaborate with AGARDA and strikes subsection (e), potentially removing reporting requirements or safeguards.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 14, 2026 by Roger Wayne Marshall · Last progress January 14, 2026
Makes targeted changes to the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AGARDA) statute to broaden program goals, change senior leadership relationships, update staffing authority, require use of a 2022 USDA strategic plan to guide administration, and revise funding language to apply to a later fiscal period while explicitly authorizing use of other unobligated funds. It also removes a prior subsection and includes formatting/wording adjustments. The changes explicitly add water conservation technologies and greenhouse gas reduction/sequestration/mitigation and resilience to AGARDA’s purposes, require the Director to work closely with the Office of the Chief Scientist, require the Director to maintain qualified staff using existing personnel authorities, and replace earlier funding language with a new funding string intended for FY2027–2031 (the replacement text appears to contain a typographical error).
Broadens AGARDA’s purposes to include water conservation and GHG reduction, revises leadership and staffing rules, ties administration to the 2022 strategic plan, and updates funding authority including use of unobligated funds.