I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1326
To provide for Department of Energy and Department of Agriculture joint
research and development activities, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY13, 2025
Mr. L
UCAS(for himself and Ms. LOFGREN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be sub-
sequently 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 Energy and Department of
Agriculture joint research and development activities, 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 ‘‘DOE and USDA Inter-4
agency Research Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND DEPARTMENT OF 1
AGRICULTURE JOINT RESEARCH AND DEVEL-2
OPMENT ACTIVITIES. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy and the 4
Secretary of Agriculture (in this section referred to as the 5
‘‘Secretaries’’) shall carry out cross-cutting and collabo-6
rative research and development activities focused on the 7
joint advancement of Department of Energy and Depart-8
ment of Agriculture mission requirements and priorities. 9
(b) M
EMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.—The Sec-10
retaries shall carry out and coordinate the activities under 11
subsection (a) through the establishment of a memo-12
randum of understanding, or other appropriate inter-13
agency agreement. Such memorandum or agreement shall 14
require the use of a competitive, merit-reviewed process, 15
which considers applications from Federal agencies, Na-16
tional Laboratories, institutions of higher education, non-17
profit institutions, and other appropriate entities. 18
(c) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out the activities 19
under subsection (a), the Secretaries may carry out the 20
following: 21
(1) Conduct collaborative research over a vari-22
ety of focus areas, such as the following: 23
(A) Modeling and simulation, machine 24
learning, artificial intelligence, data assimila-25
tion, large scale data analytics, and predictive 26
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analysis in order to optimize algorithms for 1
purposes related to agriculture and energy, 2
such as life cycle analysis of agricultural or en-3
ergy systems. 4
(B) Fundamental agricultural, biological, 5
computational, and environmental science and 6
engineering, including advanced crop science, 7
crop protection, breeding, and biological pest 8
control, in collaboration with the program au-9
thorized under section 306 of the Department 10
of Energy Research and Innovation Act (42 11
U.S.C. 18644). 12
(C) Integrated natural resources and the 13
energy-water nexus, including in collaboration 14
with the program authorized under section 15
1010 of the Energy Act of 2020 (enacted as di-16
vision Z of the Consolidated Appropriations 17
Act, 2021 (42 U.S.C. 16183)). 18
(D) Advanced biomass, biobased products, 19
and biofuels, including in collaboration with the 20
activities authorized under section 9008(b) of 21
the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 22
2002 (7 U.S.C. 8108(b)). 23
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(E) Diverse feedstocks for economically 1
and environmentally sustainable fuels, including 2
aviation and naval fuels. 3
(F) Colocation of agricultural resources 4
and activities and ecosystem services with di-5
verse energy technologies and resources. 6
(G) Colocation of agricultural resources 7
and activities with carbon storage and utiliza-8
tion technologies. 9
(H) Invasive species management to fur-10
ther the work done by the Federal Interagency 11
Committee for the Management of Noxious and 12
Exotic Weeds. 13
(I) Long-term and high-risk technological 14
barriers in the development of transformative 15
science and technology solutions in the agri-16
culture and energy sectors, including in collabo-17
ration with the program authorized under sec-18
tion 5012 of the America COMPETES Act (42 19
U.S.C. 16538). 20
(J) Grid modernization and grid security. 21
(K) Rural technology development, includ-22
ing manufacturing, precision agriculture tech-23
nologies, and mechanization and automation 24
technologies. 25
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(L) Wildfire risks and prevention, includ-1
ing the power sector’s role in fire prevention 2
and mitigation and wildfire impacts on energy 3
infrastructure. 4
(2) Develop methods to accommodate large vol-5
untary standardized and integrated data sets on ag-6
ricultural, environmental, supply chain, and eco-7
nomic information with variable accuracy and scale. 8
(3) Promote collaboration, open community- 9
based development, and data and information shar-10
ing between Federal agencies, National Labora-11
tories, institutions of higher education, nonprofit in-12
stitutions, industry partners, and other appropriate 13
entities by providing reliable access to secure data 14
and information that are in compliance with Federal 15
rules and regulations. 16
(4) Support research infrastructure and work-17
force development as the Secretaries determine nec-18
essary. 19
(5) Conduct collaborative research, develop-20
ment, and demonstration of methods and tech-21
nologies to accomplish the following: 22
(A) Improve the efficiency of agriculture 23
operations and processing of agricultural prod-24
ucts. 25
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(B) Reduce greenhouse gas emissions asso-1
ciated with such operations and such proc-2
essing. 3
(d) A
GREEMENTS.—In carrying out the activities 4
under subsection (a), the Secretaries are authorized to— 5
(1) carry out reimbursable agreements between 6
the Department of Energy, the Department of Agri-7
culture, and other entities in order to maximize the 8
effectiveness of research and development; and 9
(2) collaborate with other Federal agencies as 10
appropriate. 11
(e) R
EPORT.—Not later than two years after the date 12
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretaries shall submit 13
to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and 14
the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representa-15
tives, and the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-16
sources and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 17
Forestry of the Senate, a report detailing the following: 18
(1) Interagency coordination between each Fed-19
eral agency involved in the research and development 20
activities carried out under this section. 21
(2) Potential opportunities to expand the tech-22
nical capabilities of the Department of Energy and 23
the Department of Agriculture. 24
(3) Collaborative research achievements. 25
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(4) Areas of future mutually beneficial suc-1
cesses. 2
(5) Continuation of coordination activities be-3
tween the Department of Energy and the Depart-4
ment of Agriculture. 5
(f) R
ESEARCHSECURITY.—The activities authorized 6
under this section shall be applied in a manner consistent 7
with subtitle D of title VI of the Research and Develop-8
ment, Competition, and Innovation Act (enacted as divi-9
sion B of Public Law 117–167; 42 U.S.C. 19231 et seq.). 10
Æ
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