LegiStorm

Summary:

The Agriculture appropriations bill funds the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) except for the U.S. Forest Service. It also funds the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and—in even-numbered fiscal years—the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Agriculture appropriations include both mandatory and discretionary spending. Discretionary amounts, though, are the primary focus during the bill's development. The largest discretionary spending items are the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); agricultural research; rural development; FDA; foreign food assistance and trade; farm assistance loans and salaries; food safety inspection; animal and plant health programs; and technical assistance for conservation programs. In the absence of an enacted full-year appropriation, FY2020 began on October 1, 2019, under a continuing resolution (CR) that lasted until November 21, 2019 (P.L. 116-59, Division A). A second CR (P.L. 116-69) was enacted to last until December 20, 2019. For the regular annual appropriation, the Trump Administration requested in March 2019 $19.2 billion for discretionary-funded accounts within the jurisdiction of Agriculture appropriations subcommittees. The request would be a reduction of $4.1 billion from FY2019 (-18%). On June 4, 2019, the House Appropriations Committee reported a stand-alone Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 3164, H.Rept. 116-107) by a vote of 29-21. On June 25, 2019, the House passed a five-bill minibus appropriation with Agriculture as Division B (H.R. 3055). The discretionary total of the House-passed Agriculture appropriations bill is $24.3 billion. This is $1 billion more (+4%) than the comparable amount that was enacted for FY2019 and $5.1 more (+27%) than the Administration's request. On September 19, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported its Agriculture appropriations bill (S. 2522, S.Rept. 116-110) by a vote of 31-0. On October 31, 2019, the Senate passed a four-bill minibus appropriation with Agriculture as Division B (H.R. 3055). The discretionary total of the Senate-passed bill is $23.1 billion. This is $57 million more than the FY2019 appropriation (+0.2%), $4.2 billion more than the Administration's request, and $894 million less than the House-passed bill on a comparable amount without CFTC (-3.7%). The primary components of the $1 billion increase in the House-passed bill from FY2019 include increases to rural development accounts by $412 million (+14%, primarily for rural water, broadband, and housing), a rural broadband pilot program by $393 million (+314%), foreign agricultural assistance by $377 million (+19%), departmental administration by $205 million (+53%, primarily for construction to renovate USDA headquarters), agricultural research programming by $197 million (+6%), and FDA appropriations by $185 million (+6%). Reductions in budget authority include decreases to agricultural research buildings and facilities funding by -$331 million, rescinding WIC carryover balances an additional -$300 million, and eliminating temporary funding for international food assistance by -$216 million (with a larger increase to the base appropriation, as noted above in foreign agricultural assistance). The primary differences that comprise the -$894 million difference in the Senate-reported bill from the House-passed bill include providing agricultural research $193 million more than in the House bill and department administration accounts $97 million more than in the House bill. These greater allowances are more than offset by providing rural development $407 million less than in the House bill (largely from rural water and waste disposal grants), rural broadband in the General Provisions title $518 million less than in the House bill, foreign agricultural assistance $159 million less than in the House bill, and FDA $105 million less than the House bill. Discretionary Agriculture Appropriations, by Title, FY2019-FY2020 / Source: CRS, using P.L. 116-6 (Division B), House-passed H.R. 3055 (Division B), and Senate-passed H.R. 3055 (Division B). Note: FDA = Food and Drug Administration, CFTC = Commodity Futures Trading Commission. For comparability, includes CFTC in Related Agencies in all columns regardless of jurisdiction. The appropriation also carries mandatory spending that is largely determined in separate authorizing laws. These mandatory spending amounts total nearly $131 billion in the House-passed bill and $129 billion in the Senate-reported bill. Thus, the overall total of the FY2020 Agriculture appropriation would be about $155 billion in the House-passed bill and $152 billion in the Senate-reported bill. Policy provisions may also be included that affect how the appropriation is delivered. This year, these provisions include issues such as the relocation of USDA agencies, disaster programs, rural definitions, livestock regulations, nutrition programs, and dietary guidelines. Budget sequestration continues to affect mandatory agricultural spending accounts. Sequestration refers to automatic across-the-board reductions in spending authority. In FY2020, sequestration on mandatory spending accounts is 5.9% and totals about $1.4 billion for agriculture accounts. Recent budget acts have extended sequestration through FY2029.