House Appropriators Advance 2025 Ag Spending Bill with Supportive Language for USDA Aerial Application Research

House appropriators advanced a fiscal year 2025 agriculture funding bill last week that includes NAAA advocated committee report language supportive of aerial application technology research. The supportive language in the House committee’s report is as follows:

Aerial Application.—The Committee recognizes the importance of aerial application to control crop pests and diseases and to fertilize and seed crops and forests. Aerial application is useful not only to ensure overall food safety and food security, but also to promote public health through improved mosquito control and public health application techniques. The Committee urges ARS to prioritize research focused on optimizing aerial spray technologies for on-target deposition and drift mitigation and to work cooperatively with the Environmental Protection Agency to update their pesticide review methodology.

Since 2002 through the current federal government fiscal year of 2024, NAAA has been successful in securing an additional $13,112,500 for the Aerial Application Technology Research Unit (AATRU) within USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). In 2011 Congress enacted a ban on earmarking money for specific projects; however, NAAA was able to keep aerial application research funding steady by having the supportive report language inserted into past appropriation bills and farm bills. NAAA is also currently working on inserting language supportive of aerial application research in the 2024 Farm Bill that has passed out of the House Ag Committee.

NAAA will continue to work for adequate USDA-ARS aerial application technology research funding so long as the research is equitably distributed toward the type of aerial applications conducted most. Favorable committee report language sends a strong message to the USDA to continue to sustain appropriate funding for aerial application research.