I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2428 

To enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and biomass research and development 

programs through improved coordination and collaboration between the 

Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and land-grant 

colleges and universities, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 22, 2007 

Mr. EDWARDS (for himself, Mr. LAMPSON, and Mr. COSTA) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 

A BILL 

To enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and biomass research 

and development programs through improved coordination and collaboration between the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and land-grant colleges and universities, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. BIOFUELS RESEARCH INITIATIVE. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This section may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Biofuels Research Initiative Act of 2007’’. 

6 (b) RESEARCH, EXTENSION, AND EDUCATIONAL

7 PROGRAMS ON BIOBASED ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES AND

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1 PRODUCTS.—Title IX of the Farm Security and Rural In2 vestment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8101 et seq.) is amended 

3 by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘SEC. 9011. RESEARCH, EXTENSION, AND EDUCATIONAL 

5 PROGRAMS ON BIOBASED ENERGY TECH6 NOLOGIES AND PRODUCTS. 

7 ‘‘(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the programs es8 tablished under this section are— 

9 ‘‘(1) to enhance national energy security 

10 through the development, distribution, and imple11 mentation of biobased energy technologies; 

12 ‘‘(2) to promote diversification in, and the envi13 ronmental sustainability of, agricultural production 

14 in the United States through biobased energy and 

15 product technologies; 

16 ‘‘(3) to promote economic diversification in 

17 rural areas of the United States through biobased 

18 energy and product technologies; and 

19 ‘‘(4) to enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and 

20 biomass research and development programs 

21 through improved coordination and collaboration be22 tween the Department of Agriculture, the Depart23 ment of Energy, and the land-grant colleges and 

24 universities. 

25 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

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1 ‘‘(1) LAND-GRANT COLLEGES AND UNIVER2 SITIES.—The term ‘land-grant colleges and univer3 sities’ means— 

4 ‘‘(A) 1862 Institutions (as defined in sec5 tion 2 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, 

6 and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 

7 7601)); 

8 ‘‘(B) 1890 Institutions (as defined in sec9 tion 2 of that Act) and West Virginia State 

10 College; and 

11 ‘‘(C) 1994 Institutions (as defined in sec12 tion 2 of that Act). 

13 ‘‘(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

14 the Secretary of Agriculture. 

15 ‘‘(c) ESTABLISHMENT.—To carry out the purposes 

16 described in subsection (a), the Secretary shall establish 

17 programs under which— 

18 ‘‘(1) the Secretary shall provide grants to the 

19 lead land grant university for each of the regional 

20 consortiums with the lead university selected based 

21 on criteria in subsection (e); and 

22 ‘‘(2) the consortium shall use the grants in ac23 cordance with this section. 

24 ‘‘(d) GRANTS TO A CONSORTIUM.—The Secretary 

25 shall use amounts made available for a fiscal year under 

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1 subsection (j) to provide a grants in equal amounts to the 

2 lead land grant university for each of the regional consor3 tiums with the lead university selected based on criteria 

4 in subsection (e): 

5 ‘‘(e) CRITERIA FOR CONSORTIUM MEMBERSHIP.—To 

6 be a member of a consortium, a university must have the 

7 following attributes: 

8 ‘‘(1) Demonstrated history, capability and intel9 lectual property in germplasm development, includ10 ing but not limited to genetics, plant breeding, and 

11 molecular techniques. 

12 ‘‘(2) Production logistics, including but not lim13 ited to cropping systems, harvesting technologies, 

14 storage technologies, and transportation systems. 

15 ‘‘(3) Economic and policy analysis, including 

16 but not limited to probabilistic forecasts, economic 

17 feasibility, and business plans. 

18 ‘‘(4) Environmental assessment, including but 

19 not limited to life-cycle analysis, climate change as20 sessment, air quality, and water use evaluations of 

21 bioenergy production systems. 

22 ‘‘(5) Facilities, including but not to facilities for 

23 genomics, plant breeding, crop production, crop 

24 processing, equipment design and fabrication, equip25 ment testing, and environmental testing. 

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1 ‘‘(6) Academic and research capabilities in 

2 plant science, agronomy, soil science, plant physi3 ology, plant pathology, entomology, engineering, ag4 ricultural engineering, and agricultural economics. 

5 ‘‘(7) Management capabilities in academics, re6 search administration, intellectual property develop7 ment, contract management, Federal procurement, 

8 and agricultural technology transfer. 

9 ‘‘(f) REGIONAL CONSORTIUM GROUPS.—Each of the 

10 following shall be considered a regional consortium group 

11 for the purposes of this Act: 

12 ‘‘(1) NORTH-CENTRAL CONSORTIUM.—A north13 central university consortium for the region com14 posed of the States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Min15 nesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South 

16 Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. 

17 ‘‘(2) SOUTHEASTERN CONSORTIUM.—A south18 eastern university consortium for the region com19 posed of— 

20 ‘‘(A) the States of Alabama, Florida, Geor21 gia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, 

22 South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia; 

23 ‘‘(B) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 

24 and 

25 ‘‘(C) the United States Virgin Islands. 

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1 ‘‘(3) SOUTH-CENTRAL CONSORTIUM.—A south2 central university consortium for the region com3 posed of the States of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, 

4 Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and 

5 Texas. 

6 ‘‘(4) WESTERN CONSORTIUM.—A western uni7 versity consortium for the region composed of— 

8 ‘‘(A) the States of Alaska, Arizona, Cali9 fornia, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, 

10 and Washington; and 

11 ‘‘(B) territories and possessions of the 

12 United States (other than the territories re13 ferred to in subparagraphs (B) and (C) of para14 graph (2)). 

15 ‘‘(5) NORTHEASTERN CONSORTIUM.—A north16 eastern university consortium for the region com17 posed of the States of Connecticut, Delaware, Mas18 sachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Hamp19 shire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 

20 Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. 

21 ‘‘(g) USE OF FUNDS.— 

22 ‘‘(1) UNIVERSITY CONSORTIUM.—Of the funds 

23 made available for a fiscal year to a consortium 

24 under subsection (d), the consortium member shall 

25 use not more than 25 percent of the amount for admstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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1 ministration to support excellence in science, engi2 neering, and economics at each regional consortium 

3 to promote the purposes described in subsection (a) 

4 through each applicable State agricultural experi5 ment station, cooperative extension services, and rel6 evant educational programs of the regional consor7 tium member. 

8 ‘‘(2) GRANTS TO LAND-GRANT COLLEGES AND

9 UNIVERSITIES.—Each regional university consortium 

10 shall use the funds that remain available for a fiscal 

11 year after expenditures made under paragraph (1) 

12 to provide competitive grants to Agricultural and 

13 Land Grant colleges and universities in the region of 

14 the consortium as follows: 

15 ‘‘(A) Not less than 30 percent of the funds 

16 to conduct, consistent with the purposes de17 scribed in subsection (a), multi-institutional and 

18 multi-State research, extension, and educational 

19 programs on technology development. 

20 ‘‘(B) Not less than 30 percent of the funds 

21 to conduct, consistent with the purposes de22 scribed in subsection (a), multi-institutional and 

23 multi-State integrated research, extension, and 

24 educational programs on technology implemen25 tation. 

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1 ‘‘(3) INDIRECT COSTS.—A university consor2 tium may not recover the indirect costs of making 

3 grants under paragraph (2) to other land-grant col4 leges and universities. 

5 ‘‘(h) PLAN.—Subject to the availability of funds 

6 under subsection (j), each university consortium, in co7 operation with other land-grant colleges and universities 

8 and private industry in accordance with paragraph (2), 

9 shall jointly develop and submit to the Secretary, for ap10 proval, a plan for addressing at the State and regional 

11 levels the bioenergy, biomass, and gasification research 

12 priorities of the Department of Agriculture and the De13 partment of Energy for making grants under paragraphs 

14 (1) and (2) of subsection (e). 

15 ‘‘SEC. 9012. BIO ENERGY CONSORTIUM. 

16 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Agri17 culture shall establish a Bio Energy Consortium led by 

18 5 universities selected by the Secretary that meet criteria 

19 of excellence across a wide range of expertise, experience, 

20 and reputation. These universities shall have responsibility 

21 for regional and disciplinary organization across the 

22 United States to identify talents and expertise that con23 tributes to advancing biomass for energy and incorporate 

24 teams to address priority issues and to accelerate biomass 

25 for energy technologies. The lead universities are responmstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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1 sible for avoiding redundancy, bringing the best science 

2 to address issues and developing an integrated nationwide 

3 program. Identification of the best science for selected 

4 areas of research may be structured under a peer review 

5 competitive process developed by the 5 lead universities. 

6 ‘‘(b) EXTERNAL ADVISORY GROUP.—The Bio Energy 

7 Consortium and each of the 5 lead universities selected 

8 under subsection (a) shall each— 

9 ‘‘(1) be advised by external advisory group se10 lected by the regional consortium and be comprised 

11 of stakeholders in the region and that have broad 

12 range of expertise; and 

13 ‘‘(2) submit an annual report to the advisory 

14 group defining the research, extension, and teaching 

15 programs and accomplishments during of each entity 

16 submitting a report during the year for which the 

17 report is submitted. 

18 ‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

19 is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 

20 out this section $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 

21 through 2017.’’ 

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