II
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION S. 4386
To amend the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act
of 1998 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program
under which the Secretary shall award competitive grants to eligible
entities for the purpose of establishing and enhancing farming and ranch-
ing opportunities for veterans, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY22, 2024
Mr. M
ORANintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Edu-
cation Reform Act of 1998 to direct the Secretary of
Agriculture to establish a program under which the Sec-
retary shall award competitive grants to eligible entities
for the purpose of establishing and enhancing farming
and ranching opportunities for veterans, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Colonel Gary La-4
Grange AgVets Act of 2024’’. 5
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•S 4386 IS
SEC. 2. AGRICULTURE GRANTS FOR VETERAN EDUCATION 1
AND TRAINING SERVICES. 2
Title IV of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and 3
Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7624 et seq.) 4
is amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘SEC. 414. AGRICULTURE GRANTS FOR VETERAN EDU-6
CATION AND TRAINING SERVICES. 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITION OFVETERAN.—In this section, the 8
term ‘veteran’ has the meaning given the term in section 9
101 of title 38, United States Code. 10
‘‘(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab-11
lish a program under which the Secretary shall award 12
competitive grants to eligible entities described in sub-13
section (c) for the purpose of establishing and enhancing 14
farming and ranching opportunities for veterans. 15
‘‘(c) E
LIGIBLEENTITIES.—An entity is eligible for 16
a grant under this section if the entity is— 17
‘‘(1) a cooperative extension service (as defined 18
in section 1404 of the National Agricultural Re-19
search, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 20
(7 U.S.C. 3103)); 21
‘‘(2) a land-grant college or university (as de-22
fined in that section); 23
‘‘(3) a non-land-grant college of agriculture (as 24
defined in that section); 25
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•S 4386 IS
‘‘(4) a Hispanic-serving agricultural college or 1
university (as defined in that section); 2
‘‘(5) a State department of agriculture; 3
‘‘(6) a nonprofit organization; 4
‘‘(7) a community-based organization; or 5
‘‘(8) a combination of 2 or more eligible entities 6
described in paragraphs (1) through (7). 7
‘‘(d) U
SE OFFUNDS.—An eligible entity that receives 8
a grant under this section shall use the funds received 9
through the grant— 10
‘‘(1) to provide training and classroom edu-11
cation that lead to a comprehensive understanding 12
of farm and ranch business operations and manage-13
ment practices; 14
‘‘(2) to develop or identify curricula that vet-15
eran farmers and ranchers can adopt to help man-16
age their enterprises; 17
‘‘(3) to offer education, workshops, tours, and 18
instructor-supervised field experiences; or 19
‘‘(4) to support any other activity, as identified 20
by the Secretary, to increase the number of veterans 21
pursuing knowledge and skills development in agri-22
culture. 23
‘‘(e) M
ATCHINGFUNDS.—An eligible entity that re-24
ceives a grant under this section shall provide non-Federal 25
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•S 4386 IS
matching funds for the purposes of carrying out this sec-1
tion in an amount equal to not less than the amount of 2
the grant. 3
‘‘(f) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 4
is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 5
$5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029.’’. 6
Æ
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