December 14, 2023

Wyden, Colleagues Urge Federal Agencies to Boost Public Food and Agriculture Research Funding in Fiscal Year 2025

In a letter to USDA and OMB, senators call on agency leaders to increase USDA research funding by at least five percent, plus inflation

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he’s joined Senate colleagues to urge top federal officials to increase the Department of Agriculture’s research budget by at least five percent, plus inflation, for Fiscal Year 2025.  

“As the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget request is prepared, we request that an increase of at least five percent, plus inflation, above the FY 2024 funding levels proposed by the Senate, be provided across the board for all USDA research activities underway within the Agricultural Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Economic Research Service, and the National Agricultural Statistics Service,” the senators wrote in the letter to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young.

In their letter, the senators emphasized the importance of public funding for food and agriculture research as it ensures the United States remains competitive globally.

“Between 2008 and 2013, however, public investments in food and agricultural research dropped by 20 percent in inflation-adjusted terms, while the contributions by large private-sector corporations have increased by 64 percent over the same period… The public sector can pursue research into subjects and specialties that the private sector cannot or will not,” wrote the Senators.  “Open-access research helps to increase the pace of discoveries …. by some estimates ranging between a 20 to 60 percent rate of return.”

The senators also wrote that this increased funding would prepare the food and agricultural sector for future challenges including global population growth, sustainability, changing weather patterns, and plant and animal diseases. 

The letter was led by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Along with Wyden, the letter is signed by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.).

Full text of the letter is here.