Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2008 Appropriations (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Feb. 1, 2008 |
| Report Number |
RL34132 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Jim Monke, Resources, Science, and Industry Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
The agriculture appropriations bill includes all of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), except the Forest Service, plus the Food and Drug Administration. Jurisdiction for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) remains with the House agriculture appropriations subcommittee, but was moved to the Senate financial services subcommittee in FY2008.
The FY2008 agriculture appropriations bill was combined with 10 other appropriations bills into the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-161). The consolidated bill passed the House on December 17, 2007, passed the Senate on December 18, 2007, and was signed by the President on December 26, 2007.
The act provides $90.8 billion in total funds for agriculture and related agencies, including $18.1 billion in official discretionary appropriations, and $72.7 billion in mandatory funds. The discretionary amount is 1.6% greater than the amount in FY2007 (+$281 million), although "gross" discretionary appropriations actually available to agencies grew 5.3% to $19.5 billion. Mandatory spending decreased about $7 billion overall from FY2007. Mandatory transfers for the farm commodity programs decreased $10 billion because of less need for price-triggered income support, while food stamp benefits rose about $2.2 billion (+4.2%).
The enacted appropriation for FY2008 provides notable increases above FY2007 for conservation (+$85 million, +10%), meat and poultry inspection (+$38 million, +4.3%), agricultural research (+$38 million, +3.4%), animal and plant health programs (+$16.5 million, +1.9%), agricultural statistics (+$15 million, +10%), and the Food and Drug Administration (+$143 million, +9.1%). Rural development funding decreased $166 million (-6.6%) from FY2007, but remained higher than the Administration's request. The law removes the delay on implementation of country-of-origin labeling for meat, and requires labeling to begin by September 2008.
The act contains disaster assistance to cover certain crop and livestock losses for all of 2007 by extending the eligibility date for crop and livestock losses to December 31, 2007. (The Iraq War supplemental enacted in May 2007 covered losses through February 2007.) CBO estimates that the additional disaster authority will cost $602 million ($592 million for crops and $10 million for livestock), which is included in the cost of the bill.
The act also extends most provisions of the 2002 farm bill until March 15, 2008. The extension is expected to be sufficient for conference negotiations to resolve differences between the House- and Senate-passed farm bills. The farm bill extension states that, unless otherwise excepted, 2002 farm bill provisions in effect in September 2007 shall continue until March 15, 2008. Important among the relatively short list of programs that are not extended are the farm commodity programs for the 2008 crop year.
