I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5062 

To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to direct the Secretary 

of Agriculture to establish a program under which the Secretary will 

award grants to specialty crop producers to acquire certain equipment 

and provide training with respect to the use of such equipment. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 27, 2023 

Mr. VALADAO (for himself, Mr. COSTA, Mr. PANETTA, and Mr. LAMALFA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 

A BILL 

To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to direct 

the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program 

under which the Secretary will award grants to specialty 

crop producers to acquire certain equipment and provide 

training with respect to the use of such equipment. 

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

3 SECTION 1. AUTOMATION AND MECHANIZATION GRANTS 

4 FOR SPECIALTY CROPS PRODUCERS. 

5 Subtitle A of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 

6 (7 U.S.C. 1621 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

7 the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 210B. AUTOMATION AND MECHANIZATION GRANTS. 

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of enhancing the 

3 competitiveness of specialty crop producers in the United 

4 States, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 

5 Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service, shall 

6 establish a program under which the Secretary will award 

7 grants to eligible entities to acquire certain equipment and 

8 provide training with respect to the use of such equipment. 

9 ‘‘(b) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible entity receiving a 

10 grant under this section shall use funds received through 

11 the grant— 

12 ‘‘(1) to acquire mechanized or automated sys13 tems and tools that increase the efficiency of a task 

14 or reduce human labor for a specific activity, as de15 termined by the Secretary; and 

16 ‘‘(2) to provide training, including worker train17 ing, and other professional services required to learn 

18 how to deploy and effectively operate such systems 

19 and tools , as determined by the Secretary. 

20 ‘‘(c) AMOUNT OF GRANTS.—To the maximum extent 

21 practicable, the Secretary shall seek to ensure that the 

22 amount of a grant awarded to a single eligible entity is 

23 sufficient to provide a significant offset to the costs such 

24 eligible entity incurs in carrying out the activities specified 

25 in subsection (b). 


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1 ‘‘(d) MATCHING FUNDS REQUIREMENT.—The recipi2 ent of a grant under this section shall provide non-Federal 

3 matching funds equal to not less than 50 percent of the 

4 amount of the grant. 

5 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

6 ‘‘(1) MECHANIZED OR AUTOMATED SYSTEMS

7 AND TOOLS.—The term ‘mechanized or automated 

8 systems and tools’ includes— 

9 ‘‘(A) low dust harvesting tools and equip10 ment; 

11 ‘‘(B) grinding and chipping tools and 

12 equipment; 

13 ‘‘(C) sorting machines,; 

14 ‘‘(D) phytosanitary, infrared, and pasteur15 ization tools and equipment; 

16 ‘‘(E) traceability tools and equipment; 

17 ‘‘(F) storage and warehousing tools and 

18 equipment; 

19 ‘‘(G) drones for monitoring commodity 

20 piles and feedstuff for cattle; 

21 ‘‘(H) hedgers or shredders; 

22 ‘‘(I) wireless, networks, and connectivity 

23 equipment to support IoT devices; 

24 ‘‘(J) remote, mobile, or drone sensing sen25 sors for field level monitoring of environmental 


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1 variables for use in farm production and/or 

2 processing management decision making; 

3 ‘‘(K) enhanced precision irrigation automa4 tion, remote sensing, and metering, pest and 

5 disease detection, nutrient analysis, and crop 

6 load assessment equipment and tools; 

7 ‘‘(L) crop monitoring and analytics equip8 ment and tools; 

9 ‘‘(M) potential and predictive near-infrared 

10 crop damaged assessments; 

11 ‘‘(N) robotic, semi-autonomous, autono12 mous or mechanized systems or other tools; 

13 ‘‘(O) equipment and tools that automate or 

14 mechanize seeding, weeding, harvesting, pack15 ing (field and in-house), pruning, spraying, 

16 transporting, climate protection (such as shade 

17 cloth or light manipulation); and 

18 ‘‘(P) such other automated or mechanized 

19 systems or tools that increase efficiency as de20 termined by the Secretary. 

21 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en22 tity’ means an individual or entity engaged in the 

23 commercial production of specialty crops in the 

24 United States.’’. 

Æ 


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