At last week’s BAA Summer Leadership Meeting in Washington, DC, NIFA Director Jaye Hamby and other leaders discussed the agency’s strategy for distributing funds that must be obligated by September 30th. For programs where enough fundable applications were submitted for the previous funding cycle, those prior year applicants may be contacted and offered awards. For programs where the current year funding can be completely utilized in this manner, those programs will not publish an FY 2025 request for applications (RFA). For programs where this is not a viable strategy, RFAs will be published. However, deadlines will be 30 days or fewer after the date of the RFA publication. The NIFA leaders noted that while awards for these programs will be made by September 30, the availability of funds may be delayed. Not all FY 2025 competitive programs must obligate their funding by September 30. For example, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) can carry over into successive fiscal years. For the latest information from NIFA, follow the agency on X, Facebook, or sign up to receive updates via email.
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Scheduled for Wednesday, August 6th, 2025, this Symposium is a unique opportunity for technologists, business program leaders, researchers, and innovators to come together and discuss the latest advancements in technology and digital transformation within the USDA.
To ensure you don't miss out on this exciting event, USDA encourages you to visit the Innovation Symposium website and register for the USDA Innovation Symposium. By registering, you'll not only gain access to all the live sessions and panels that the symposium has to offer, but you’ll also be given access to recordings and offline content that can be accessed after the event.Appropriations Update: Senate Appropriations Committee Advances FY 2026 Agriculture Bill
On July 10, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its fiscal year (FY) 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. The bill’s topline discretionary allocation is $27.1 billion, $1.577 billion more than the House bill and provides a $400 million increase above FY 2025. The full Committee approved the bill on the same day by a vote of 27 to 0. At this time, there is not a clear timeline on if or when the bill will go to the Senate floor.
Per the report accompanying the Senate Agriculture appropriations bill, NIFA would receive $1.679 billion, flat with the FY 2025 enacted level, rebuking the dramatic decreases proposed in the President’s Budget Request (PBR). As in the House version, capacity programs and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) are flat funded. The Senate version actually provides level funding for all NIFA programs—including those subject to proposed reductions or eliminations in the PBR.
As in the House bill, the Senate bill once again allows the matching requirement for the Specialty Crop Research Initiative to be waived by the Secretary of Agriculture. Like the House, report language encouraging NIFA to continue supporting the work of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes funded through USDA is included. Additional directions are given for Agricultural Research Enhancement Awards, agroacoustics, citrus disease research, genome to phenome, Extension Design Initiative, the Farm and Stress Assistance Network program, and numerous other programs.
The Senate report acknowledges the delays from NIFA in issuing FY 2025 solicitations and directs NIFA, once the bill is signed into law, to report to the Committee on a regular basis the expected timelines for FY 2026 funding opportunities. Within AFRI, the Senate report encourages the Secretary to consider junior or community colleges applying via the AFRI Education and Workforce Development program. The report further directs that AFRI, “make regionally adapted, publicly held cultivar development a distinct funding priority within AFRI for fiscal year 2026.”
With respect to cooperative extension the report validates the role of extension by stating, “The Committee recognizes the essential function that extension plays in ensuring that farmers, ranchers, and communities of all sizes are empowered to meet the challenges they face, adapt to changing technology and a changing climate, improve nutrition and food safety, prepare for and respond to emergencies, and protect our environment. The Committee is concerned that the Federal investment in this critical Federal, State, and local partnership has lagged in recent years, just as extraordinary stresses have been placed on farmers, ranchers, rural businesses, and communities.”
The report also expresses the Committee’s concerns that extension services do not reach disadvantaged populations and includes the following language, “The Committee is concerned that extension service resources do not reach minority, socially disadvantaged, and Tribal communities in proportion to their participation in the agricultural sector. All institutions that receive extension funding should seek to ensure that an equitable percentage of their overall extension work reaches minority, socially disadvantaged, and Tribal communities. The Committee directs NIFA to evaluate distribution of extension resources to these three populations and report to the Committee no later than 90 days after enactment of this act.”
While not funded within NIFA, the report has a funding table that still includes funding for the SNAP Education (SNAP-Ed) program. SNAP-Ed was eliminated during reconciliation and due to the timing of reconciliation passage and consideration of this bill, the report table was not updated. Currently, there is no further funding for SNAP-Ed.