Sponsors
The bill expands federally funded hands-on agricultural training and access—helping students, community colleges, and employers by strengthening workforce pipelines—while increasing federal spending and risking unequal access and reduced grant flexibility that may favor better-resourced institutions.
Students and trainees (including those at community colleges and minority-serving institutions) gain hands-on agricultural skills through federally funded internships, apprenticeships, and experience-based curricula.
Community and junior colleges plus minority-serving institutions become eligible for grants, expanding access to agriculture career pathways for local and diverse populations.
Eligible colleges and universities receive federal support to expand agriculture training programs and faculty development, strengthening institutional capacity to deliver workforce education.
Smaller or lower-capacity institutions and their students may be disadvantaged because they could struggle to form industry partnerships or administer grants, concentrating benefits at better-resourced colleges.
All taxpayers may face increased federal spending to fund the new grant program, adding budgetary pressure if costs are not offset elsewhere.
Recipient institutions must allocate at least 5% of grant funds to recruitment and faculty development, reducing local flexibility to spend grant money on other program priorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a NIFA grant program authorizing awards to eligible institutions and industry partners to develop agriculture workforce training and retention programs.
Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), to award grants to eligible institutions to develop and run agriculture workforce training programs in partnership with industry. Grantees must use at least 5% of grant funds on program delivery activities such as recruitment and faculty professional development, and the Secretary must implement the program by January 31, 2026.
Introduced September 4, 2025 by Tina Smith · Last progress September 4, 2025