Today, Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Congresswoman Kathy Manning (NC-06) led bipartisan members of the North Carolina delegation in calling for the inclusion of mandatory funding for the Research Facilities Act (RFA) in the Farm Bill. RFA is a major priority for land-grant universities nationwide, including North Carolina State University (NC State) and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T).

NC State and NC A&T together require updates to six of their core agriculture research and teaching laboratory facilities, which are all more than 50 years old. Sufficient RFA funding would help to address these needed facility upgrades as well as backlogged maintenance at off-campus research facilities and buildings. Agriculture is the biggest industry in North Carolina and this critical sector of our state’s economy is supported by the groundbreaking research conducted at NC State and NC A&T.

“While NC State and NC A&T have continued to operate world-class research and extension programs despite these issues, they will be increasingly challenged to advance our nation’s leadership in agriculture in deteriorating, outdated buildings,” the lawmakers wrote.

The lawmakers continued, “We respectfully request that mandatory funding for the Research Facilities Act – a high-need, high-impact program – continue to be included in any Farm Bill that advances. Simply put, robust investment in the bipartisan Research Facilities Act is an investment in the future of agriculture in America.”

In addition to Ross, Tillis, and Manning, the letter was signed by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) and Representatives Wiley Nickel (NC-13), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), and Greg Murphy (NC-03).

Full text of the letter is available here.