Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, Rural Development, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. PANETTA. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of my bipartisan amendment No. 10 that would bolster agricultural research.

This amendment, offered with my co-chair of the Ag Research Caucus, Rodney Davis from Illinois, would support farmers all across the country in their ongoing efforts to produce bigger, safer, sustainable, and more agriculture.

In my district, on the central coast of California, otherwise known as the Salad Bowl of the World, with its hundreds of specialty crops, the farmers depend on USDA research programs, not just to survive but to succeed.

Two of those key programs that our amendment funds are the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative, or AFRI, and the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority, also known as AGARDA.

AFRI is the Nation's leading competitive grants program for agriculture research. Our amendment funds it with $450 million, a $15 million increase from last year.

AGARDA is a new program that was authorized in the 2018 farm bill, and for the first time, it is now funded with $2 million.

During the pandemic, Madam Speaker, it was clear that the work of our farmers and farmworkers is absolutely essential. The least that we can do in Congress is to provide this type of funding for the necessary research that will help not just our recovery right now, but it will also ensure food security for our future.

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