On November 25, Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks announced news about the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). Back in July, the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it would vacate the facility over the next few years.
The senators announced in a press release that Congress had allocated $6 million in the 2026 budget for renovation and construction at BARC. The senators also announced that Congress intends to restore BARC research funding to the same level as 2024.
Nonetheless, BARC remains at risk. There is no indication that USDA has canceled its plan to vacate the facility. Furthermore, the question of BARC’s 2026 research funding may be headed to a showdown between Congress and USDA in early January.
To understand this situation, consider the law that Congress passed on November 12, 2025. Known as Public Law 119-37, it ended the government shutdown. It also funds USDA for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 (October 2025 through September 2026).
$6 Million for Renovations
The appropriations bill explicitly provides $3 million in funding to continue BARC building and infrastructure renovation during 2026. The law uses congressionally directed spending to appropriate an additional $3 million for BARC renovations. Each year, an individual congressmember can call for directed spending on a limited number of projects in his or her district. These projects are listed in Congress’ joint explanatory statement, a report that is associated with this year’s appropriations bill.
The $6 million in 2026 renovation funds is good news, especially considering that USDA had proposed earlier in the year that there be no funding for BARC renovations during 2026. For details on the proposed cuts, see pages 20-45 of USDA’s FY 2026 budget justification for the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which was published in May 2025.
Since 2016, the USDA has spent over $200 million on renovations in Beltsville that include work on two clusters of BARC buildings: Buildings 001 to 005 on Route 1 and Buildings 307 and 308 on Powder Mill Road. During the past 10 years, USDA also renovated two other Beltsville facilities: the National Agricultural Library on Route 1 and the large office complex on Sunnyside Avenue. This office complex has room for 1,911 employees and is called the George Washington Carver Center. In July 2025, USDA announced plans to vacate the Carver Center as well as BARC.
Research Funding Uncertainty
In May 2025, USDA proposed a drastic cut to BARC research. It proposed spending only $128 million in FY 2026, much less than the $144 million spent as recently as FY 2024. Both years’ figures are stated on pages 20-32 of the ARS FY 2026 budget justification.
Unfortunately, the appropriations bill that Congress passed in November does not explicitly forbid the cuts to research funding that USDA had proposed back in May. The appropriations bill is not detailed enough to break out the funding for individual research units such as BARC.
Congress Intensifies Oversight
Congress threw down the gauntlet when it passed the USDA budget. Section 716 of the appropriations bill requires the Secretary of Agriculture to report to Congress by January 11. She must report how much of her department’s Congressionally appropriated 2026 budget she will spend on each unit of the ARS.
Section 716 also requires the Secretary to tell Congress how many people currently work at each research unit and how many people she plans to hire at each unit during 2026.
These reporting requirements are an unusually explicit form of congressional oversight. They suggest that Congress is concerned that USDA would otherwise disregard Congress’ intent.
Restoring FY 2024 Funding
Last month, Congress expressed support for fully funding BARC research, and specifically for funding it at no less than the level in 2024. This statement is found in a report called a “joint explanatory statement.” Such statements are prepared by the conference committee that reconciles the different House and Senate versions of a bill. These statements are considered a definitive expression of Congress’ intent.
The relevant passage in the report is at the beginning of the ARS section:
“The agreement provides $1,793,063,000 for the Agricultural Research Service, Salaries and Expenses. The agreement rejects research terminations and laboratory closures proposed in the President’s budget request and expects extramural and intramural research to be funded at no less than the FY 2024 levels.”
The Executive Branch, and specifically USDA, might choose to ignore congressional intent and try to follow its own interpretation of the law. Past administrations, however, have generally avoided doing so. If the Executive Branch tries to thwart congressional intent, Congress may retaliate by passing more restrictive legislation. In addition, a court may overturn an action if it finds it to be contrary to the proper interpretation of a law.
Historical Context
Even if Congress were to succeed in restoring BARC research funding to what is was in 2024, financial constraints would still limit BARC’s ability to address the nation’s agricultural research needs.
Already by 2024, annual funding for BARC research had shrunk by more than 35 percent during the prior 20 years if one factors in inflation. Nationwide, federal funding for agricultural research dropped 19 percent during the same period, after adjusting for inflation. There is concern in Congress that China, the United States’ economic rival, now spends much more on agricultural research than does the U. S. government.
Two charts accompany this article to illustrate this history. The top chart shows BARC research funding dropping from $200 to $250 million per year to just $140 to $170 million per year after the 2007 to 2009 recession. To view the charts, visit page 7 of the December 11 issue.
As the chart indicates, it is unclear what BARC spent on salaries and programs in 2025 because the Trump administration allowed 20 percent of the employees at the ARS to resign between February and April 2025. USDA has not disclosed how many BARC employees were lost. As previously discussed, BARC’s budget for 2026 is not yet determined.
The bottom chart shows that, during the past 25 years, there have been three periods of renovation and construction at USDA facilities in Beltsville. During the first of these periods, a USDA program called Renaissance 93 invested about $20 million per year on average in Beltsville during 1998–2006. During the second period, the renovation funding was part of the government response to the 2007–2009 recession. The third period saw renovation spending that averaged about $28 million per year during 2016–2025.
It is good news that Congress has appropriated $6 million for BARC renovation and construction in 2026. It is also good news that Congress has put in writing that it intends for BARC research to be funded at no less than its level in 2024. It remains to be seen if the Secretary of Agriculture will follow Congress’ intent or will cut BARC funding anyway. Either way, she must inform Congress of her decision by January 11. Still hanging in the air is the threat that the USDA will vacate BARC over the next few years as stated in the department’s July 2025 reorganization plan.
The author has also written about BARC on the Greenbelt Online blog: https://greenbeltonline.org/?s=barc.
Md. Senators Sponsor $6M in BARC Funding
In a November 25 press release Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, both D-Md., announced they had secured provisions to, among other things, support the continued operations of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). This includes $6 million to modernize aging buildings and to make infrastructure upgrades needed to continue agricultural research at BARC, including to nish steam system repairs from power plant to endpoints, repair water towers and the water treatment plant, and repair wastewater main lines. The senators secured additional funding to help cat sh processing, a major concern for Maryland’s small seafood businesses. They also announced federal funding for community-led projects throughout Maryland within the scal year 2026 for agriculture, rural development, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies. These projects support rst responders, economic development and more. BARC, which supports 1,000 jobs, has been targeted for closure by the USDA.
