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H.R.4173 / 118th Congress

Advancing Automation Research and Development in Agriculture Act

Referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology.

Official summary

Version 00 · Introduced in House · Jun 15, 2023

Advancing Automation Research and Development in Agriculture Act

This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish within USDA a stand-alone competitive research and extension grant program to increase the competitiveness of specialty crops in the United States through the advancement and acceleration of mechanization and automation. Specialty crops are fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and horticulture and nursery crops (including floriculture).

The bill provides specified funds for FY2024 and each succeeding year to carry out the program.

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The grant program includes projects that

create or improve cost-effective technologies to reduce a specialty crop grower's manual labor requirements and increase the efficiency of crop production, resource management, harvesting, processing, post-harvest technologies, and packaging;

increase adoption of mechanization and automation technologies; and

accelerate automation and mechanization through prototype development, in-field trial testing, ongoing industry engagement, and rapid commercialization.

Entities eligible for the grant program are federal agencies, national laboratories, colleges and universities, research institutions and organizations, private organizations and corporations, state agricultural experiment stations, individuals, and organizations representing specialty crop growers.

Read the summary on Congress.gov
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Who introduced it

Rep. LaMalfa, Doug [R-CA-1] · R–CA

Committees

  • Agriculture Committee
18 cosponsorship records, including any withdrawals

Actions

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  1. Referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology.

  2. Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.

  3. Introduced in House

  4. Introduced in House

Bill text & related measures

Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.

Related bills identified by Congress.gov

No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.

Source last updated: Jun 11, 2024. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.

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