II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3301 

To provide for Department of Energy and Department of Agriculture joint 

research and development activities, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 14 (legislative day, NOVEMBER 13), 2023 

Mr. LUJA ́N (for himself and Mr. HOEVEN) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 

Resources 

A BILL 

To provide for Department of Energy and Department of 

Agriculture joint research and development activities, 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 ‘‘DOE and USDA Inter5 agency Research Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND DEPARTMENT OF 

2 AGRICULTURE JOINT RESEARCH AND DEVEL3 OPMENT ACTIVITIES. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy and the 

5 Secretary of Agriculture (referred to in this section as the 

6 ‘‘Secretaries’’) shall carry out cross-cutting and collabo7 rative research and development activities focused on the 

8 joint advancement of Department of Energy and Depart9 ment of Agriculture mission requirements and priorities. 

10 (b) MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretaries shall carry 

12 out and coordinate the activities under subsection 

13 (a) through the establishment of a memorandum of 

14 understanding or other appropriate interagency 

15 agreement. 

16 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The memorandum or 

17 agreement described in paragraph (1) shall require 

18 the use of a competitive, merit-reviewed process that 

19 considers applications from Federal agencies, Na20 tional Laboratories, institutions of higher education, 

21 nonprofit institutions, and other appropriate entities. 

22 (c) COORDINATION.—In carrying out the activities 

23 under subsection (a), the Secretaries may— 

24 (1) conduct collaborative research relating to a 

25 variety of focus areas, such as— 


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1 (A) modeling and simulation, machine 

2 learning, artificial intelligence, data assimila3 tion, large-scale data analytics, and predictive 

4 analysis in order to optimize algorithms for 

5 purposes relating to agriculture and energy, 

6 such as life-cycle analyses of agricultural or en7 ergy systems; 

8 (B) fundamental agricultural, biological, 

9 computational, and environmental science and 

10 engineering, including advanced crop science, 

11 crop protection, breeding, and biological pest 

12 control, in collaboration with the program au13 thorized under section 306 of the Department 

14 of Energy Research and Innovation Act (42 

15 U.S.C. 18644); 

16 (C) integrated natural resources and the 

17 energy-water nexus, including in collaboration 

18 with the program authorized under section 

19 1010 of the Energy Act of 2020 (42 U.S.C. 

20 16183); 

21 (D) advanced biomass, biobased products, 

22 and biofuels, including in collaboration with the 

23 activities authorized under section 9008(b) of 

24 the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 

25 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8108(b)); 


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1 (E) diverse feedstocks for economically and 

2 environmentally sustainable fuels, including 

3 aviation and naval fuels; 

4 (F) colocation of agricultural resources and 

5 activities and ecosystem services with diverse 

6 energy technologies and resources, such as geo7 thermal energy, nuclear energy, solar energy, 

8 wind energy, natural gas, hydropower, and en9 ergy storage; 

10 (G) colocation of agricultural resources 

11 and activities with carbon storage and utiliza12 tion technologies; 

13 (H) invasive species management to fur14 ther the work done by the Federal Interagency 

15 Committee for the Management of Noxious and 

16 Exotic Weeds; 

17 (I) long-term and high-risk technological 

18 barriers in the development of transformative 

19 science and technology solutions in the agri20 culture and energy sectors, including in collabo21 ration with the program authorized under sec22 tion 5012 of the America COMPETES Act (42 

23 U.S.C. 16538); 

24 (J) grid modernization and grid security; 


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1 (K) rural technology development, includ2 ing manufacturing, precision agriculture tech3 nologies, and mechanization and automation 

4 technologies; and 

5 (L) wildfire risks and prevention, including 

6 the role of the power sector in fire prevention 

7 and mitigation and wildfire impacts on energy 

8 infrastructure; 

9 (2) develop methods to accommodate large vol10 untary standardized and integrated data sets on ag11 ricultural, environmental, supply chain, and eco12 nomic information with variable accuracy and scale; 

13 (3) promote collaboration, open community14 based development, and data and information shar15 ing between Federal agencies, National Labora16 tories, institutions of higher education, nonprofit in17 stitutions, industry partners, and other appropriate 

18 entities by providing reliable access to secure data 

19 and information that are in compliance with Federal 

20 laws (including regulations); 

21 (4) support research infrastructure and work22 force development as the Secretaries determine to be 

23 necessary; and 

24 (5) conduct collaborative research, development, 

25 and demonstration of methods and technologies— 


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1 (A) to improve the efficiency of agriculture 

2 operations and processing of agricultural prod3 ucts; and 

4 (B) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as5 sociated with the operations and processing de6 scribed in subparagraph (A). 

7 (d) AGREEMENTS.—In carrying out the activities 

8 under subsection (a), the Secretaries may— 

9 (1) carry out reimbursable agreements between 

10 the Department of Energy, the Department of Agri11 culture, and other entities in order to maximize the 

12 effectiveness of research and development; and 

13 (2) collaborate with other Federal agencies as 

14 appropriate. 

15 (e) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 

16 of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries shall submit to 

17 the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the 

18 Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the 

19 Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech20 nology and the Committee on Agriculture of the House 

21 of Representatives a report describing the following: 

22 (1) Interagency coordination between each Fed23 eral agency involved in the research and development 

24 activities carried out under this section. 


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1 (2) Potential opportunities to expand the tech2 nical capabilities of the Department of Energy and 

3 the Department of Agriculture. 

4 (3) Collaborative research achievements. 

5 (4) Areas of future mutually beneficial suc6 cesses. 

7 (5) Continuation of coordination activities be8 tween the Department of Energy and the Depart9 ment of Agriculture. 

10 (f) RESEARCH SECURITY.—The activities authorized 

11 under this section shall be applied in a manner consistent 

12 with subtitle D of title VI of the Research and Develop13 ment, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 19231 

14 et seq.). 

Æ 


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