Sponsors (2)
The bill secures and clarifies funding for USDA research and protects certain accounts from automatic cuts—providing planning stability and benefits to researchers and farmers—while increasing federal obligations, reducing PAYGO transparency, and shifting sequestration burdens onto other programs.
Researchers at USDA agencies receive steadily increasing, inflation‑adjusted funding, improving stability for long‑term research projects and careers.
Farmers and agricultural producers benefit from sustained investment in agricultural research and statistics that can raise productivity, inform markets, and support farm decision‑making.
The bill provides clearer, more predictable budgeting by locking a growth formula for certain USDA research accounts and by clarifying which accounts are exempt from sequestration, reducing sudden cuts and planning uncertainty for agencies and recipients.
Taxpayers and the federal budget face higher obligations and increased deficit risk because the bill locks in additional, inflation‑adjusted spending without dedicated offsets.
By exempting or clarifying exemptions for certain accounts from sequestration, the bill could shift larger proportional cuts onto non‑exempt programs, reducing funding for other federal activities and beneficiaries.
Removing the statutory PAYGO reporting requirement reduces fiscal transparency and oversight, making it harder for taxpayers and watchdogs to see the Act's net cost.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Establishes automatic, inflation-indexed annual appropriations for four USDA research agencies starting FY2027 and directs that the Act’s budgetary effects not be entered on certain PAYGO scorecards while adjusting sequestration-exemption language.
Official title: Prioritize funding for an expanded and sustained national investment in agricultural research.
Introduced April 20, 2026 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress April 20, 2026
Provides automatic, inflation-indexed annual appropriations to four USDA research agencies beginning in FY2027, increasing each year by a fixed 105% multiplier through FY2036 and thereafter by CPI-U adjustments only. Also amends sequestration-exemption language in the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act and directs that the Act’s budgetary effects not be recorded on specified PAYGO scorecards.