Sponsors (3)
The bill increases federal investment and security in agrifood and biosecurity research—boosting innovation, farmer resilience, and supply‑chain protection—while imposing matching‑fund requirements, reducing some public data transparency, and tightening program controls that may shift agency priorities and limit collaboration and judicial oversight.
Researchers and universities will receive increased federal funding and formal partnership opportunities for agrifood and biosecurity R&D, expanding research capacity and career opportunities in these fields.
Farmers and rural communities stand to gain access to new resilience, precision‑agriculture, and market technologies developed through the program, potentially improving productivity and local economic opportunity.
Military personnel, local governments, and supply chain actors could see reduced risk of food‑supply disruptions because strengthened food‑supply and biosecurity research improves preparedness and logistics resilience.
Universities, nonprofits, and private companies receiving grants must provide non‑Federal matching funds equal to the grant amount, increasing their project costs and potentially limiting participation by underfunded institutions.
Taxpayers and the public will face reduced transparency because agricultural producer data collected or held by the federal government is withheld from FOIA requests, limiting oversight of data use.
Directing DoD involvement in agriculture R&D could reallocate defense and USDA resources toward dual‑use projects, potentially crowding out other civilian programs or shifting agency priorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires DoD and USDA to form a coordinated R&D program with competitive grants, public‑private partnerships, and mandatory research‑security practices for agriculture and food‑defense priorities.
Official title: To provide for Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture joint research and development activities, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Mark B. Messmer · Last progress February 12, 2026
Creates a formal DoD–USDA research partnership to fund and coordinate joint research and development on agriculture, food defense, resilience, bioindustrial feedstocks, and natural‑resource management. It requires an interagency agreement (MOU) that sets competitive merit review, allows federal, university, nonprofit, national lab, and industry participation, authorizes public–private grants with non‑Federal matching funds, and mandates robust research‑security and risk‑management practices for participating projects.