DOD and USDA Interagency Research Act
Sponsored By: Senator Banks, Jim [R-IN]
Introduced
Summary
Creates a joint Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture research program focused on agriculture and food defense. It directs the agencies to coordinate competitive research and public private partnerships to protect food systems, strengthen supply chains, and move technologies from lab to field.
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- Farmers and rural communities will see research and pilots for precision agriculture, drones, bioindustrial feedstocks, and other tech that aim to boost resilience and local economies. Grants can require nonfederal partners to match funding dollar for dollar.
- Researchers, universities, national laboratories, nonprofits, and companies can apply to a merit-reviewed competition and get secure data access for defense-related analysis. The law also protects certain federal and producer data from Freedom of Information Act release and sets out cybersecurity and supply chain safeguards.
- The Department of Defense and USDA get targeted R&D on supply chain security, plant and animal genetics, wildfire mitigation, positioning and timing, and operational resilience. The program must follow research security standards, produce annual public and classified reports, allow five-year GAO reviews, and may use unobligated ARDA and DoD RDT&E funds.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
New Defense and Agriculture research program
This bill would create a joint Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture research and development program. The program would fund applied R&D, field tests, workforce exchanges, and technology transition in areas like AI, biosecurity, supply chains, sensing, and feedstocks. DoD and USDA would be able to make grants and enter reimbursable agreements to carry out the work. Each non‑Federal grant recipient would have to provide matching funds equal to the grant amount, and agencies may use certain unobligated ARDA and DoD RDT&E funds.
Annual reports and GAO reviews
This bill would require DoD, with USDA, to report to Congress not later than one year after enactment and annually after that on coordination, project selection, research outcomes, security practices, and spending. A public version would be released but only with information safe to share under DoD and USDA controlled unclassified information rules. The Government Accountability Office would review program effectiveness at least once every five years.
Stronger research security and data rules
This bill would require DoD and USDA to sign a formal interagency agreement that sets merit‑review selection, partner due diligence, cybersecurity, supply chain protection, and other risk management steps. It would require ongoing monitoring and secure information sharing with qualified analysts. The bill would also protect federal data or producer records used in the program from FOIA disclosure and from release under other authorities. Courts would be instructed to defer to the Secretaries' reasonable interpretation of ambiguous parts of the Act.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Banks, Jim [R-IN]
IN • R
Cosponsors
Sen. Budd, Ted [R-NC]
NC • R
Sponsored 5/20/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov