| 1 | 1 | | II |
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| 2 | 2 | | 118THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 2 |
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| 4 | 4 | | DSESSION S. 4386 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To amend the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act |
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| 6 | 6 | | of 1998 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program |
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| 7 | 7 | | under which the Secretary shall award competitive grants to eligible |
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| 8 | 8 | | entities for the purpose of establishing and enhancing farming and ranch- |
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| 9 | 9 | | ing opportunities for veterans, and for other purposes. |
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| 10 | 10 | | IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES |
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| 11 | 11 | | MAY22, 2024 |
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| 12 | 12 | | Mr. M |
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| 13 | 13 | | ORANintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred |
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| 14 | 14 | | to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry |
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| 15 | 15 | | A BILL |
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| 16 | 16 | | To amend the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Edu- |
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| 17 | 17 | | cation Reform Act of 1998 to direct the Secretary of |
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| 18 | 18 | | Agriculture to establish a program under which the Sec- |
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| 19 | 19 | | retary shall award competitive grants to eligible entities |
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| 20 | 20 | | for the purpose of establishing and enhancing farming |
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| 21 | 21 | | and ranching opportunities for veterans, and for other |
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| 22 | 22 | | purposes. |
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| 23 | 23 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 24 | 24 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 25 | 25 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 26 | 26 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Colonel Gary La-4 |
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| 27 | 27 | | Grange AgVets Act of 2024’’. 5 |
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| 29 | 29 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 |
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| 30 | 30 | | •S 4386 IS |
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| 31 | 31 | | SEC. 2. AGRICULTURE GRANTS FOR VETERAN EDUCATION 1 |
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| 32 | 32 | | AND TRAINING SERVICES. 2 |
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| 33 | 33 | | Title IV of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and 3 |
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| 34 | 34 | | Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7624 et seq.) 4 |
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| 35 | 35 | | is amended by adding at the end the following: 5 |
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| 36 | 36 | | ‘‘SEC. 414. AGRICULTURE GRANTS FOR VETERAN EDU-6 |
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| 37 | 37 | | CATION AND TRAINING SERVICES. 7 |
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| 38 | 38 | | ‘‘(a) D |
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| 39 | 39 | | EFINITION OFVETERAN.—In this section, the 8 |
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| 40 | 40 | | term ‘veteran’ has the meaning given the term in section 9 |
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| 41 | 41 | | 101 of title 38, United States Code. 10 |
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| 42 | 42 | | ‘‘(b) E |
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| 43 | 43 | | STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab-11 |
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| 44 | 44 | | lish a program under which the Secretary shall award 12 |
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| 45 | 45 | | competitive grants to eligible entities described in sub-13 |
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| 46 | 46 | | section (c) for the purpose of establishing and enhancing 14 |
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| 47 | 47 | | farming and ranching opportunities for veterans. 15 |
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| 48 | 48 | | ‘‘(c) E |
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| 49 | 49 | | LIGIBLEENTITIES.—An entity is eligible for 16 |
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| 50 | 50 | | a grant under this section if the entity is— 17 |
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| 51 | 51 | | ‘‘(1) a cooperative extension service (as defined 18 |
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| 52 | 52 | | in section 1404 of the National Agricultural Re-19 |
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| 53 | 53 | | search, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 20 |
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| 54 | 54 | | (7 U.S.C. 3103)); 21 |
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| 55 | 55 | | ‘‘(2) a land-grant college or university (as de-22 |
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| 56 | 56 | | fined in that section); 23 |
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| 57 | 57 | | ‘‘(3) a non-land-grant college of agriculture (as 24 |
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| 58 | 58 | | defined in that section); 25 |
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| 61 | 61 | | •S 4386 IS |
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| 62 | 62 | | ‘‘(4) a Hispanic-serving agricultural college or 1 |
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| 63 | 63 | | university (as defined in that section); 2 |
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| 64 | 64 | | ‘‘(5) a State department of agriculture; 3 |
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| 65 | 65 | | ‘‘(6) a nonprofit organization; 4 |
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| 66 | 66 | | ‘‘(7) a community-based organization; or 5 |
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| 67 | 67 | | ‘‘(8) a combination of 2 or more eligible entities 6 |
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| 68 | 68 | | described in paragraphs (1) through (7). 7 |
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| 69 | 69 | | ‘‘(d) U |
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| 70 | 70 | | SE OFFUNDS.—An eligible entity that receives 8 |
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| 71 | 71 | | a grant under this section shall use the funds received 9 |
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| 72 | 72 | | through the grant— 10 |
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| 73 | 73 | | ‘‘(1) to provide training and classroom edu-11 |
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| 74 | 74 | | cation that lead to a comprehensive understanding 12 |
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| 75 | 75 | | of farm and ranch business operations and manage-13 |
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| 76 | 76 | | ment practices; 14 |
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| 77 | 77 | | ‘‘(2) to develop or identify curricula that vet-15 |
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| 78 | 78 | | eran farmers and ranchers can adopt to help man-16 |
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| 79 | 79 | | age their enterprises; 17 |
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| 80 | 80 | | ‘‘(3) to offer education, workshops, tours, and 18 |
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| 81 | 81 | | instructor-supervised field experiences; or 19 |
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| 82 | 82 | | ‘‘(4) to support any other activity, as identified 20 |
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| 83 | 83 | | by the Secretary, to increase the number of veterans 21 |
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| 84 | 84 | | pursuing knowledge and skills development in agri-22 |
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| 85 | 85 | | culture. 23 |
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| 86 | 86 | | ‘‘(e) M |
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| 87 | 87 | | ATCHINGFUNDS.—An eligible entity that re-24 |
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| 88 | 88 | | ceives a grant under this section shall provide non-Federal 25 |
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| 91 | 91 | | •S 4386 IS |
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| 92 | 92 | | matching funds for the purposes of carrying out this sec-1 |
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| 93 | 93 | | tion in an amount equal to not less than the amount of 2 |
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| 94 | 94 | | the grant. 3 |
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| 95 | 95 | | ‘‘(f) A |
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| 96 | 96 | | UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 4 |
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| 97 | 97 | | is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 5 |
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| 98 | 98 | | $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029.’’. 6 |
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| 99 | 99 | | Æ |
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| 101 | 101 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS |
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