U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon recently held a roundtable discussion where they announced the implementation of the FY2026 Funding Opportunity for Research Facilities Act program.
According to a press release by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts provided $125 million annually for the Research Facilities Act program, and this historic investment will help address decades of deferred maintenance and accelerate modernization of agriculture research facilities across the country.”
Secretary Rollins said, “A nation that cannot feed itself is not secure, and for too long many of our land-grant universities have faced aging facilities and mounting deferred maintenance costs that threaten their ability to conduct world-class agricultural research.”
USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics and Chief Scientist Dr. Scott H. Hutchins also spoke on the matter, saying, “Agricultural innovation has enabled our nation to feed millions and eradicate emerging threats and maintain one of the safest food supplies in the world. The Research Facilities Act program will ensure that future food and agricultural research is conducted in state-of-the-art facilities equipped with cutting-edge tools. This program is a win for American agriculture and for the next generation of scientists and producers.”
Audio Reporting by Elizabeth Sanders for Southeast AgNet.