Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chair, my amendment No. 106 prohibits funds for the DOD's bioindustrial manufacturing and design ecosystem, or BioMADE, that funds lab-grown meat and protein products for the military from feeding our men and women. How disgusting does that sound?

With a national debt of over $37 trillion, we can't afford to litter sensible appropriation bills with wasteful spending.

An October 20 press release revealed BioMADE received $87 million in Federal dollars under the Biden-Harris administration to produce lab- grown meat to reduce carbon emissions on military bases. In March 2023, BioMADE received an additional $450 million for the ManTech program.

Let me name a few of these projects that taxpayer dollars benefited.

One is called the ``Potential Benefit of Superbrewed Food's Sustainable Postbiotic Protein on Warfighter Health.'' That one produces lab-grown protein to shorten recovery time and improve the concentration of servicemembers. Another is the ``Development of a Sustainable, Low-Cost, Oil Process for Heart-Healthy DOD Rations,'' or producing oil from microalgae for servicemembers. The ``Alternative Protein Bars,'' is a lab-grown protein derived from a microbiological agent similar to fungus.

Yummy.

This is the food that built America? I think not.

Why do marines, sailors, guardsmen, and coasties need lab-grown meat when the U.S. is full of delicious beef?

In fiscal year 2022 alone, the DOD awarded more than $369 million in U.S. contracts for beef, $2.3 million of which was supplied by Phoenix, Arizona.

Serving lab-grown meat over domestic beef or poultry rewards the government-funded bioindustry and punishes the American cattle ranchers who have a far smaller so-called carbon footprint than these big corporations.

In 2024, Florida and Alabama banned lab-grown meat to protect farmers and the cattle industry. This year, Mississippi, Montana, and Indiana all followed suit.

Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues to end this experiment on our Armed Forces and support my amendment No. 106.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chair, I am a little bit confused here, so I want to ask the question: If we do good faith advertising to the American people, because that is what our job is, tell me why we would actually say the ``Potential Benefit of Superbrewed Food's Sustainable Postbiotic Protein on Warfighter Health.'' That is obviously not what the gentleman is talking about.

Then, we are talking about the ``Sustainable, Low-Cost, Oil Process for Heart-Healthy DOD Rations.''

The other side's mantra is to do low carbon, getting rid of cows, but now they wonder why the cattle industry has problems understanding why they are doing this.

I accept what the gentleman said in regard to what BioMADE is, but their truth in advertising fails. It fails dismally for the American public because that is what it says here.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chair, I would love to see our money go to that aspect, but not to the substitutes for meat.

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Mr. GOSAR. I am interested in the substitutes because I don't think our warfighters should have to have that, and I would like people to make that distinction, even if it costs the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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