[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7547 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7547
To provide for Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture
joint research and development activities, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 12, 2026
Mr. Messmer (for himself and Mr. Davis of North Carolina) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed
Services, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture
joint research and development activities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``DOD and USDA Interagency Research
Act''.
SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE JOINT
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
Agriculture (referred to as the ``Secretaries'') shall carry out
collaborative research and development activities focused on the joint
advancement of Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture
mission requirements and priorities in the areas of agriculture and
food defense, as specified in section 221 of the Department of
Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 6922), including
requirements and priorities related to national security, agricultural
resilience, feedstocks for bioindustrial manufacturing, and natural
resource management.
(b) Memorandum of Understanding.--The Secretaries shall enter into
a memorandum of understanding or another appropriate interagency
agreement for the purposes of carrying out and coordinating the
research activities under subsection (a). Such memorandum or agreement
shall--
(1) formalize coordination between the Department of
Defense and the Department of Agriculture on joint project
activity in the areas specified in subsection (c);
(2) require the use of a competitive, merit-reviewed
process, which considers applications from Federal agencies,
National Laboratories, institutions of higher education,
nonprofit institutions, industry, and other appropriate
entities;
(3) provide a framework for the Secretaries to enter into
public-private partnerships under which--
(A) the Secretaries may make grants for the
purposes of this Act; and
(B) the Secretaries require the recipient of any
such grant to provide an amount of non-Federal matching
funds in an amount equal to the amount of the grant
involved;
(4) where appropriate, leverage existing bilateral and
multilateral agreements with allies and partners;
(5) ensure that activities carried out under subsection (a)
focus on the research and development of technologies and tools
that are--
(A) characterized by high-payoff potential;
(B) designed to prepare for, prevent, protect
against, or mitigate current or projected threats to
mission requirements and priorities delineated under
subsection (a); and
(C) dependent upon initial Federal investment to
incentivize private development and broader market
adoption; and
(6) establish a comprehensive risk management approach to
gauge national security implications and inform and protect
research, including through partner and performer engagement,
due diligence processes, continual monitoring, cybersecurity,
threat awareness and education, supply chain protection,
information sharing, and risk mitigation.
(c) Coordination.--In carrying out the activities under subsection
(a) and contingent on formally documented and mutually agreed upon
research security practices, polices, and procedures, the Secretaries
shall--
(1) conduct collaborative research on--
(A) engineering, mechanization, and technological
improvements, including to address capacity issues
across the agrifood supply chain;
(B) agricultural data architecture, including for
applications of artificial intelligence and machine
learning to agricultural data to optimize agricultural
and defense systems;
(C) biological sciences, such as plant, animal, and
microbial genetics, for--
(i) natural disaster and weather
resiliency;
(ii) biosecurity;
(iii) biological, toxin, and chemical
threat mitigation;
(iv) mitigation of the impacts to farmland
contiguous to military bases of Department of
Defense chemical releases, specifically,
perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(commonly referred to as PFAS), released
through activities carried out by the
Department of Defense; and
(v) invasive species management;
(D) management strategies for water, energy, soil,
forests, and food to reduce scarcity risks to civilian
and military operations;
(E) supply chain security, including feedstocks for
bioindustrial manufacturing for defense applications,
such as propellants, explosives, fuels, and other
critical materials and precursors;
(F) agrifood supply chain security to minimize food
disruptions, promote and protect agriculture as
critical national infrastructure, and enhance defense
logistics for military feeding;
(G) innovations applicable to defense objectives
and beneficial to rural agricultural economies,
including--
(i) precision agriculture technologies;
(ii) drones;
(iii) remote sensing; and
(iv) positioning, navigation, and timing
capabilities;
(H) operational resilience to, and preparedness
for, natural disasters, biosecurity hazards, and other
threats to agricultural systems;
(I) wildfire prediction, prevention, and
mitigation, including research on fuel load management,
fire behavior modeling, post-fire recovery strategies,
and the impact of wildfires on agricultural
productivity and military readiness; and
(J) such other topics as the Secretaries may
determine relevant to the mission requirements and
priorities described in subsection (a);
(2) promote collaboration and secure information sharing
with stakeholders that are capable of increasing market-based
adoption of technologies developed pursuant to this Act;
(3) provide reliable access to secure data and information
for entities that have analysis and intelligence capabilities
and expertise relating to the defense of the food and
agriculture critical infrastructure sector, including--
(A) Federal, State, local, and Tribal agencies;
(B) relevant authorities at the Department of
Defense, Department of Agriculture, and National
Laboratories; and
(C) institutions of higher education, nonprofit
institutions, and industry partners;
(4) ensure that, where activities utilize Federal data or
records from agricultural producers, such data--
(A) is not subject to disclosure under section 552
of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the
Freedom of Information Act); and
(B) is not disclosed pursuant to any other
authority or action of the Secretaries;
(5) establish and fund research in areas identified by the
Chief Scientist of the Department of Agriculture and the Under
Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, including
through the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development
Authority established under section 1473H of the National
Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of
1977 (7 U.S.C. 3319k) and the Department of Defense Office of
Research and Engineering, to address mission requirements and
priorities delineated under subsection (a);
(6) support research and workforce development as the
Secretaries determine necessary to foster innovation in both
the agricultural and defense sectors, including sharing of
personnel of the Department of Defense and Department of
Agriculture through the interagency exchange program
established under section 221 of the Department of Agriculture
Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 6922); and
(7) conduct applied research, development, and
demonstration projects to field-test innovations resulting from
the collaborative research conducted under paragraph (1), with
the purpose of transitioning successful technologies into real-
world agricultural and defense operations to improve
effectiveness, reduce risks, and strengthen long-term
readiness.
(d) Agreements.--In carrying out the activities under subsection
(a), the Secretaries are authorized to--
(1) enter into reimbursable agreements between the
Department of Defense, the Department of Agriculture, and other
entities to maximize the effectiveness of research and
development; and
(2) collaborate with relevant members of the intelligence
community and other Federal agencies as appropriate.
(e) Authority To Use Unobligated Funds.--In addition to such sums
as may be appropriated to carry out this Act, the Secretaries are
authorized to carry out this Act using unobligated funds otherwise
appropriated for the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development
Authority within the Department of Agriculture and for research,
development, testing, and evaluation within the Department of Defense.
(f) Reporting and Oversight.--
(1) Annual reports.--Not later than one year after the date
of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the
Secretaries shall--
(A) submit to the appropriate congressional
committees a report that includes a description of--
(i) interagency coordination between each
Federal agency involved in the research and
development activities carried out under this
section, which shall include a description of
the methodology used to select such activities
for the year covered by the report;
(ii) potential opportunities to expand the
technical capabilities of the Department of
Defense and the Department of Agriculture;
(iii) collaborative research achievements
and the impact of such achievements on national
defense and agricultural resilience;
(iv) research security practices, policies,
and procedures implemented in conjunction with
the activities carried out under this Act;
(v) expenditures for research and
development activities under this Act; and
(vi) future priorities for joint research;
and
(B) make a version of the report available to the
public, except that such publicly available version of
the report may only contain information that is safe
for public release in accordance with the Controlled
Unclassified Information Programs at the Department of
Defense and Department of Agriculture.
(2) Research security.--The activities authorized under
this section shall be carried out in a manner consistent with
subtitle D of title VI of the Research and Development,
Competition, and Innovation Act (enacted as division B of
Public Law 117-167; 42 U.S.C. 19231 et seq.), to ensure
research integrity and security.
(3) GAO reviews.--Not less frequently than once every five
years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a review
to assess the effectiveness and impact of the joint research
initiative established under this Act.
(g) Judicial Deference.--Notwithstanding section 706 of title 5,
United States Code, a court shall defer to the Secretaries' reasonable
interpretation of any ambiguous provision of this Act.
(h) Definitions.--In this Act:
(1) The term ``agriculture and food defense'' has the
meaning giving that term in section 221 of the Department of
Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 6922).
(2) The term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(A) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee
on Agriculture, and the Committee on Science, Space,
and Technology of the House of Representatives; and
(B) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee
on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the
Senate.
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