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S. 2500 119th Congress Senate

Research for Healthy Soils Act

Official title: A bill to amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to include as a high-priority research and extension area research on microplastics … Show full official titleShow less

Official title: A bill to amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to include as a high-priority research and extension area research on microplastics in land-applied biosolids on farmland, and for other purposes.

Introduced: July 29, 2025 Introduced by: Jeff Merkley Democratic · Oregon See on congress.gov
Agriculture and Food
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 Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed Senate
Passed House
To President
Became law
Jul 29, 2025
Introduced in Senate
Jul 29, 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
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What's happening now July 29, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Research for Healthy Soils Act

This bill includes research on the agricultural impacts of microplastics in land-applied biosolids on farmland as a Department of Agriculture (USDA) high-priority research and extension area and reauthorizes other research and extension activities. Microplastic is a plastic or plastic-coated particle that is less than 5 millimeters in size.

The bill specifically allows grants for carrying out or enhancing research on microplastics (e.g., through the development or analysis of wastewater treatment techniques to filter out or biodegrade microplastics from biosolids intended to be used for agricultural purposes).

Further, the bill reauthorizes USDA grants to support competitive specialized research and extension activities, including high-priority areas, through FY2031. The bill also specifically reauthorizes through FY2031

  • the Pulse Crop Health Initiative;
  • the Comprehensive Food Safety Training Network;
  • pollinator protection research and extension grants;
  • increased USDA capacity and infrastructure to address and conduct research on colony collapse disorder and other pollinator issues; and
  • a USDA-conducted nationwide honey bee pest, pathogen, health, and population status surveillance program.
 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 1
 Lobbying activity 5

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

  • OCEAN CONSERVANCY
    for OCEAN CONSERVANCY · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
  • OCEAN CONSERVANCY
    for OCEAN CONSERVANCY · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
  • OCEAN CONSERVANCY
    for OCEAN CONSERVANCY · District of Columbia · 1st Quarter 2026 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)
  • OCEAN CONSERVANCY
    for OCEAN CONSERVANCY · District of Columbia · 4th Quarter 2025 (Oct 1 - Dec 31)
  • OCEAN CONSERVANCY
    for OCEAN CONSERVANCY · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2025 (July 1 - Sep 30)

Bodies those filers lobbied

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

 Cosponsors 4
All 4 Democratic 4
D
Booker, Cory A.
New Jersey · Jul 29, 2025
 D
Van Hollen, Chris
Maryland · Jul 29, 2025
 D
Whitehouse, Sheldon
Rhode Island · Jul 29, 2025
 D
Wyden, Ron
Oregon · Jul 29, 2025
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 2500: Research for Healthy Soils Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2500/
MLA
"S. 2500: Research for Healthy Soils Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2500/.
Bluebook (legal)
S. 2500, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2500/.
Markdown link
[S. 2500: Research for Healthy Soils Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2500/)
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