American Agricultural Security Research Act of 2025

House Votes

This bill directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to recognize “centers of excellence” in key farm and food topics to boost research, teaching, and outreach. Focus areas include aquaculture; training new farmers; biosecurity and cybersecurity to defend the food supply; precision and digital agriculture; biotechnology; crop protection; farm business management; food quality (including PFAS, microplastics, and heavy metals); foreign animal diseases; and forestry. It also allows centers focused on forest health and on food safety, bioprocessing, and value‑added agriculture. Centers run for five years (with one possible five‑year renewal), must partner widely to avoid duplication and support rural jobs, cannot use funds for construction, and must report yearly on projects and results. Funding is authorized at $10 million per year for 2026–2030 for these centers .

It also creates a competitive grant program to help protect the nation’s food and farm system from chemical, biological, cybersecurity, or bioterrorism attacks, as well as other global catastrophic and existential threats. Grant funds can support research on countermeasures, expand teaching programs to train more experts in agricultural biosecurity and cybersecurity, upgrade labs for safety, buy equipment, and improve rapid response capacity. Eligible applicants include state agricultural experiment stations and departments, colleges and universities, research foundations and institutions, federal agencies, national labs, and groups of these. Funding is authorized at $10 million per year for 2026–2030 for this program .

Key points

• Who is affected: Land‑grant and other colleges, veterinary schools, state agriculture agencies, research groups, and rural communities that benefit from new solutions and workforce training .
• What changes: USDA will recognize topic‑area centers, require annual reports, and run a new grant program focused on protecting the food and agriculture system; funds cannot be used for building construction .
• When: Authorizes funding for fiscal years 2026 through 2030; annual reporting starts one year after enactment .