H.R. 4155 — American Agricultural Security Research Act of 2025

This section revises the Centers of Excellence program by striking existing subsections (a) through (c) and requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to recognize at least one center for each of 11 areas of focus in agricultural research, extension, and education—including aquaculture; beginning farmers and ranchers; biosecurity and cybersecurity; biobased agricultural engineering; biotechnology; crop production, protection, and resilience; digital agriculture; farm business and financial management; food quality; foreign animal disease; and forestry. Eligible host institutions include 1862 Institutions, 1890 Institutions, 1994 Institutions, non-land-grant colleges of agriculture, Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges or universities, and accredited veterinary schools, with requirements for geographic diversity to the maximum extent practicable and a limit of one center per institution during any period. Host institutions must partner with the Agricultural Research Service, other federal agencies, states, institutions of higher education (as defined in the Higher Education Act of 1965), industry groups, and others to coordinate efforts, leverage resources, disseminate solutions, address emerging threats, support workforce development, and manage intellectual property; awards are for a five-year period, renewable once, and funds may not be used for new building construction.

This section revises the agriculture and food protection grant program (7 U.S.C. 3352) to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to award competitive grants to eligible entities—including state agricultural experiment stations, state departments of agriculture, colleges or universities, university research foundations, research institutions or organizations, federal agencies, national laboratories, or groups of two or more such entities—for research, extension, and education activities to protect the U.S. food and agricultural system from chemical, biological, cybersecurity, or bioterrorism attacks and other global catastrophic and existential threats, as defined in 6 U.S.C. 821 (i.e., threats that may produce systemic failure of critical infrastructure or significant harm to human civilization, such as severe pandemics or nuclear war). Grant funds may be used to (1) develop qualified agricultural countermeasures; (2) expand teaching programs in agriculture, veterinary medicine, and related disciplines to build expertise in agricultural biosecurity and cybersecurity; (3) upgrade facilities to meet biosafety and biosecurity requirements; (4) acquire equipment and cover capital costs for expanding such teaching programs; or (5) improve timely response capacity to emerging or existing threats. Authorizes $10 million for each of FY2026 through FY2030.