Research for Healthy Soils Act

II 119TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2500 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 pur- poses. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 29, 2025 Mr. M ERKLEY (for himself, Mr. B OOKER, Mr. W HITEHOUSE, Mr. W YDEN, and Mr. V AN HOLLEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and For- estry 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. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Research for Healthy 4 Soils Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:02 Aug 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2500.IS S2500ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2500 IS SEC. 2. MICROPLASTICS IN LAND-APPLIED BIOSOLIDS ON 1 FARMLAND. 2 Section 1672(d) of the Food, Agriculture, Conserva-3 tion, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5925(d)) is amend-4 ed by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘(21) M ICROPLASTICS IN LAND -APPLIED BIO -6 SOLIDS ON FARMLAND .—Research and extension 7 grants may be made under this section for the pur-8 poses of carrying out or enhancing research on the 9 agricultural impacts of plastic or plastic-coated par-10 ticles that are less than 5 millimeters in any dimen-11 sion (referred to in this paragraph as ‘microplas-12 tics’) in land-applied biosolids on farmland, includ-13 ing— 14 ‘‘(A) by conducting surveys and collecting 15 data on microplastic concentration, particle 16 size, and chemical composition in land-applied 17 biosolids on farmland; 18 ‘‘(B) through the development or analysis 19 of wastewater treatment techniques to filter out 20 or biodegrade microplastics from biosolids in-21 tended to be used for agricultural purposes; 22 ‘‘(C) by conducting an analysis of the im-23 pact on agricultural crops and soil health of 24 microplastics in land-applied biosolids on farm-25 land; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:02 Aug 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2500.IS S2500ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2500 IS ‘‘(D) by conducting research to better un-1 derstand how wastewater processing impacts 2 microplastics; and 3 ‘‘(E) by conducting research to better un-4 derstand the fate, residence time, and transport 5 of microplastics on farmland.’’. 6 SEC. 3. REAUTHORIZATION OF HIGH-PRIORITY RESEARCH 7 AND EXTENSION INITIATIVES. 8 Section 1672 of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, 9 and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5925) is amended by 10 striking ‘‘2023’’ each place it appears in subsection (e)(5), 11 subsection (f)(5), paragraphs (1)(B), (2)(B), and (3) of 12 subsection (g), and subsection (h) and inserting ‘‘2031’’. 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:02 Aug 01, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2500.IS S2500ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS