Sponsors (4)
The bill directs modest federal funding to strengthen agricultural cybersecurity and workforce capacity—benefiting farmers, rural communities, and land‑grant universities—while concentrating grants, adding administrative burdens, and incurring a small recurring federal cost.
Farmers and rural communities will gain improved protection of food and agriculture systems through regionally targeted cybersecurity research, tools, and testbeds that reduce vulnerability to cyberattacks.
Regionally tailored R&D networks and applied testbeds will speed deployment of agriculture-specific cybersecurity solutions across rural areas, improving operational resilience and incident response locally.
Applied research and demonstration projects funded by the program can lower future recovery and remediation costs from cyber incidents in food systems, reducing economic losses for producers and consumers.
Taxpayers will fund approximately $25 million per year from FY2026–FY2030, increasing federal spending and creating an opportunity cost for other priorities.
Limiting eligible applicants primarily to land‑grant institutions and specific programs may exclude other capable research centers and slow nationwide coverage and innovation.
Focusing defenses or research priorities specifically on named foreign adversaries risks politicizing research agendas and could leave other threats or neutral vulnerabilities under-addressed.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a NIFA-administered grant program to fund five regional agriculture cybersecurity centers, a national network, and a coordinating entity, authorizing $25M/year for FY2026–FY2030.
Creates a competitive grant program at NIFA, in consultation with DHS, to fund five Regional Agriculture Cybersecurity Centers and a national network to protect U.S. food and agriculture systems from cyber threats. The centers will do research, run security operations centers and testbeds, run attack/defense exercises, and provide training and tools for regional partners. Awards go to eligible land-grant colleges and universities that have food/agriculture and cybersecurity programs and regional coordination relationships. The bill authorizes $25 million per year for FY2026–FY2030 to carry out the program and requires designation of a coordinating entity to link the regional centers into a national network. The work will include a specific focus on preventing cyberattacks from listed foreign adversaries in coordination with DHS.
Introduced September 18, 2025 by Theodore Paul Budd · Last progress September 18, 2025