S. 3637 — ACE Agriculture Act of 2026

This section revises the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AGARDA), which supports advanced research and development to overcome long-term technological barriers in agriculture and food production (i.e., via flexible "other transactions" with private entities and prototype development). Specifically, it (1) removes "pilot" from the program name and related references, making AGARDA a permanent program; (2) expands the definition of qualified products and projects to explicitly include water conservation technologies and innovation in growing agricultural products and adds priorities such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction, sequestration, or mitigation; resilience to drought, infectious diseases, pathogens, and pests; and consideration of economic costs; (3) requires the AGARDA Director to collaborate with the Department of Agriculture's Chief Scientist while clarifying that no other program heads report to the Director; (4) directs use of the department's 2022 strategic plan to administer AGARDA; and (5) increases annual funding to $100 million for FY2027 through FY2031 (from $50 million for FY2019 through FY2023), authorizes use of other unobligated departmental funds, and strikes the prior termination provision.