Sponsors (5)
The bill directs substantial new, dedicated federal funding and a coordinated research/extension effort to accelerate organic transition and climate‑resilient practices—benefiting farmers, universities, and rural communities—while increasing federal spending, administrative requirements, and rules that could exclude some participants or divert resources from other priorities.
Farmers, researchers, and rural communities will get a major boost in federally supported organic research as the bill authorizes large new research funding (notably a $100M/year research authorization beginning FY2030) to accelerate innovation and on‑farm adoption.
Producers, transitioning farms, and extension programs gain dedicated, multi-year funding streams for transition and program continuity (including $10M/year FY2026–27, $20M/year FY2028+, plus a $10M annual mandatory pot FY2025–2030), lowering barriers to convert to organic and supporting implementation.
Organic producers, consumers, and USDA will benefit from a coordinated Initiative and mandated analyses that set research priorities, produce better regional/national data and tools, and strengthen extension/land‑grant engagement to translate research into practice.
Taxpayers and federal budgets face increased mandatory and authorized outlays from multiple new funding streams (authorizations and mandatory $10M programs), raising overall fiscal commitments.
USDA and research agencies will face added administrative, reporting, and coordination burdens (surveys, periodic reports, interagency participation, consent processes), which can divert staff time, slow projects, and increase program costs.
Eligibility rules and program design (agency membership requirements, SES roles, limits on project directors, and peer‑review preferences) risk excluding qualified nonfederal experts and disadvantaging smaller or nonpartnered research teams.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a USDA organic research coordination body, raises OREI funding to $100M by FY2030, creates transition-to-organic grants, and requires an ERS economic impact study.
Official title: To amend the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 and the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to direct the Agricultural Research Service to expand organic research, and for other purposes.
Introduced October 6, 2025 by Eugene Simon Vindman · Last progress October 6, 2025
Creates a USDA coordinating body to plan and expand organic agriculture research, raises and schedules multi-year funding for organic research grants, authorizes competitive grants to help farms transition to organic production, and requires an ERS economic impact analysis of organic agriculture. It adds statutory protections and procedures for projects involving Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and sets multi-year funding authorizations for the new and existing programs.