II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4386 

To amend the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act 

of 1998 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program 

under which the Secretary shall award competitive grants to eligible 

entities for the purpose of establishing and enhancing farming and ranching opportunities for veterans, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 22, 2024 

Mr. MORAN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 to direct the Secretary of 

Agriculture to establish a program under which the Secretary shall award competitive grants to eligible entities 

for the purpose of establishing and enhancing farming 

and ranching opportunities for veterans, 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. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Colonel Gary La5 Grange AgVets Act of 2024’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. AGRICULTURE GRANTS FOR VETERAN EDUCATION 

2 AND TRAINING SERVICES. 

3 Title IV of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and 

4 Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7624 et seq.) 

5 is amended by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 414. AGRICULTURE GRANTS FOR VETERAN EDU7 CATION AND TRAINING SERVICES. 

8 ‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF VETERAN.—In this section, the 

9 term ‘veteran’ has the meaning given the term in section 

10 101 of title 38, United States Code. 

11 ‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab12 lish a program under which the Secretary shall award 

13 competitive grants to eligible entities described in sub14 section (c) for the purpose of establishing and enhancing 

15 farming and ranching opportunities for veterans. 

16 ‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity is eligible for 

17 a grant under this section if the entity is— 

18 ‘‘(1) a cooperative extension service (as defined 

19 in section 1404 of the National Agricultural Re20 search, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 

21 (7 U.S.C. 3103)); 

22 ‘‘(2) a land-grant college or university (as de23 fined in that section); 

24 ‘‘(3) a non-land-grant college of agriculture (as 

25 defined in that section); 


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1 ‘‘(4) a Hispanic-serving agricultural college or 

2 university (as defined in that section); 

3 ‘‘(5) a State department of agriculture; 

4 ‘‘(6) a nonprofit organization; 

5 ‘‘(7) a community-based organization; or 

6 ‘‘(8) a combination of 2 or more eligible entities 

7 described in paragraphs (1) through (7). 

8 ‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible entity that receives 

9 a grant under this section shall use the funds received 

10 through the grant— 

11 ‘‘(1) to provide training and classroom edu12 cation that lead to a comprehensive understanding 

13 of farm and ranch business operations and manage14 ment practices; 

15 ‘‘(2) to develop or identify curricula that vet16 eran farmers and ranchers can adopt to help man17 age their enterprises; 

18 ‘‘(3) to offer education, workshops, tours, and 

19 instructor-supervised field experiences; or 

20 ‘‘(4) to support any other activity, as identified 

21 by the Secretary, to increase the number of veterans 

22 pursuing knowledge and skills development in agri23 culture. 

24 ‘‘(e) MATCHING FUNDS.—An eligible entity that re25 ceives a grant under this section shall provide non-Federal 


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1 matching funds for the purposes of carrying out this sec2 tion in an amount equal to not less than the amount of 

3 the grant. 

4 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

5 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

6 $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029.’’. 

Æ 


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