7 U.S.C. § 7614c — Budget submission and funding

(a) Definitions.

(1) “Covered program” means each Agricultural Research Service or Economic Research Service research program for which annual appropriations are requested in the President’s annual budget submission, and each National Institute of Food and Agriculture competitive program for which annual appropriations are requested in that submission. This section does not define “covered program” as a program with its own budget line.

(2) “Request for applications” means a National Institute of Food and Agriculture funding announcement giving detailed information about an Institute funding opportunity, including its purpose, eligibility, restrictions, focus areas, evaluation criteria, regulatory information, and application instructions.

(b) Budget request. With the President’s annual budget submission, the President must submit to Congress one budget line showing the total amount requested for the Department’s Research, Education, and Economics mission-area research, education, and extension activities for that fiscal year and the preceding five fiscal years.

(c) Capacity and infrastructure programs. Of funds requested above the critical base funding level, budgetary emphasis should be placed on increasing funding for 1890 Institutions, 1994 Institutions, NLGCA Institutions, Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and universities, and small 1862 Institutions.

(d) Competitive programs. Of funds requested above the competitive-program critical base funding level, budgetary emphasis should be placed on increasing funding for emerging problems and finding solutions to those problems.

(e) Additional presidential budget-submission information.

(1) Each year, for each funding request for a covered program, the President must submit the paragraph (2) information with the annual budget submission. The President must submit any paragraph (3) additional information within a reasonable period beginning after the budget submission.

(2) The information includes baseline information for each covered program: the prior fiscal year’s funding level; the requested funding level, including any increase or decrease; and an explanation for any change. It also includes the location and staff years of each program carried out by the Economic Research Service or Agricultural Research Service; proposed funding levels and expected publication date, scope, and allocation level for each listed request for applications; and any other information the Secretary decides will increase congressional oversight.

(3) Additional information means information that the Secretary, after consulting with the listed House and Senate Agriculture Committees and Appropriations subcommittees, decides is a necessary revision or clarification of paragraph (2) information.

(4) Unless the President submits the paragraph (2)(C) information for a fiscal year, the President may not carry out during that year a program authorized under the listed provisions: section 2279(d), section 3157(b), section 5811, section 5925b, or section 7632.

(f) Secretary’s annual report. By the date the President submits the annual budget, the Secretary must report to Congress on Federal agricultural research, extension, and education activities during the preceding fiscal year. The report must review how much those activities duplicate or overlap within the Department or resemble activities of other Federal agencies, the States, institutions of higher education, or the private sector. Each report submitted on or after January 1, 2014, must also project national priorities for agricultural research, extension, and education for five years, taking domestic needs into account.

(g) Fund transfers. Nothing in this section limits the Secretary’s authority under section 2257 to reprogram or transfer funds.