Durbin leads letter urging increase in USDA research

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today led 13 of his colleagues in sending a letter to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young, urging them to include in President Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget an increase in the Agriculture Department’s research budget by at least 5%, plus inflation.

Durbin noted in a news release, “The U.S. share of public agriculture research investments globally among high-income countries as a group has declined from 35% in 1960 to less than 25% by 2013. By comparison, in the past 30 years, China’s investment in public agriculture research has risen eight-fold, with China now the world’s largest public funder of agriculture research. According to a 2021 report jointly commissioned by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Farm Journal Foundation, U.S. public spending on food and agriculture has been flat for the past decade, threatening the competitiveness of U.S food systems, a growing concern as the global population may reach 10 billion by 2050, and food production needs will increase by 60% to 70%.”

“As the president’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget request is prepared, we request that an increase of at least 5%, 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.