AIBS has joined 50 other stakeholder organizations in urging House and Senate Appropriators to provide at least $1.9 billion to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)—the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) intramural research agency—in fiscal year (FY) 2023.
“ARS is USDA’s chief scientific in-house research agency supporting research across the full spectrum of food and agriculture at more than 90 research locations across the country,” the groups note. “ARS is uniquely positioned to support critical long-term agricultural research across a variety of climates and agricultural settings, including the Long Term Agro-Ecosystem Research (LTAR) sites, the Resilient Economic Agricultural Practices (REAP) sites, and the USDA Climate Hubs. ARS also develops and maintains numerous, agriculturally significant, long-term datasets and is home to the National Agricultural Library, the world’s largest collection devoted to agriculture.”
Included in the joint request is $112 million for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) and $15 million for the new Big Data Initiative at ARS. Read the letter.
Stay current on the latest science policy news. Subscribe to our bi-weekly AIBS Public Policy Report.