United States-Israel Agriculture Cooperation Improvement and Expansion Act

This bill, known as the United States-Israel Agriculture Cooperation Improvement and Expansion Act, amends the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 to modify the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development (BARD) Fund. The BARD Fund, established in 1977, supports collaborative agricultural research between the two nations to address shared food production challenges, and this bill expands its mission to explicitly support mid-stage research aimed at advancing cooperative agricultural projects of mutual interest. A significant new provision is the establishment of a BARD Fund accelerator program , designed to fast-track cooperative research, accelerate the development of agricultural innovations, and provide management guidance and technical assistance to participating scientists. To support these enhanced activities, the bill authorizes an appropriation of $8,000,000 annually for the BARD Fund for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031.