Congress funds veteran farming education with $5M annual grant program
S. 5218 — Colonel Gary LaGrange AgVets Act of 2026 · Filed by Jerry Moran (R-KS) · Introduced Aug 3, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill creates a new federal grant program that awards competitive funding to universities, extension services, nonprofits, and state agriculture departments to establish training and education programs helping military veterans start or improve farming and ranching operations. The program authorizes $5 million per year for five years (2027–2031), with grantees required to match federal funds dollar-for-dollar.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is the establishment of a competitive grant program for veteran agricultural training. It is a straightforward public investment in workforce development and economic opportunity for a defined beneficiary class.
What the text implies
- The bill does not specify funding caps per grantee or per state, creating potential for concentration of resources in well-resourced institutions or regions with stronger grant-writing capacity.
- Matching-fund requirement may disadvantage rural or under-resourced nonprofits and community organizations, effectively favoring land-grant universities and state agencies with larger budgets.
- No explicit performance metrics, outcome reporting, or accountability measures are defined; program success will depend entirely on USDA rulemaking and discretion.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands educational and economic opportunity for a specific underserved population (military veterans) by funding training in a sector where they face barriers to entry. The matching-fund requirement ensures local commitment and leverages private resources. No restrictions on citizen rights, remedies, or protections are imposed.
Who stands to gain
- land-grant universities
- cooperative extension services
- nonprofit agricultural organizations
- community-based organizations
- state departments of agriculture
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Secretary of Agriculture, land-grant colleges and universities, cooperative extension services, Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, state departments of agriculture, military veterans (as defined in 38 U.S.C. § 101(2))
Where it stands
- Aug 3, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 3, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,297 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress funds veteran farming education with $5M annual grant program” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5218 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.