LegiStorm

Summary:

The Agriculture appropriations bill funds the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) except for the U.S. Forest Service. The FY2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-328, Division A) and the FY2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 118-42, Division B) included funding for USDA conservation programs and activities. Agricultural conservation programs receive both mandatory and discretionary spending. Most conservation program funding is mandatory and is authorized in omnibus farm bills. Other conservation programs—mostly conservation technical assistance—operate with discretionary funding through annual appropriations acts. The FY2023 appropriations included funding levels for discretionary conservation programs that were more than the amounts provided in FY2022. The FY2024 appropriations reduced funding levels for discretionary conservation below the FY2023 levels. In FY2023, Congress also enacted legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA; P.L. 117-169), which provided supplemental funding for both mandatory and discretionary conservation programs in addition to what was provided in annual appropriations. The largest discretionary conservation program is the Conservation Operations (CO) account, which funds conservation planning and implementation assistance on private agricultural lands across the country. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers the CO account. CO funds are used to support nearly half of the salaries and expenses for NRCS staff, as well as NRCS technology development, conservation system design, compliance reviews, grants to partners for additional technical assistance capacity, and resource assessment reports. A decline in funding for CO over the past 10 years has resulted in reduced NRCS staffing levels. Reductions in staff may affect NRCS’s ability to provide technical assistance and administer farm bill conservation programs to farmers and ranchers, including additional funding provided by the IRA. The FY2023 appropriations increased funding for CO to $941.1 million, a $36.7 million increase from FY2022 levels. The FY2024 appropriations decreased funding for CO to $914.9 million. Both the FY2023 and FY2024 appropriations directed CO funding to specific projects, commonly referred to as earmarks. In FY2023 and FY2024, earmarks accounted for roughly 2% of total CO. Conservation programs that were funded from separate appropriations in FY2023 were funded from CO in FY2024. The FY2023 appropriations included a $13.0 million increase for additional NRCS staff, the first direct increase in funding for additional staff in the previous five years. Similar additional funding for staffing was not provided in the FY2024 appropriations. Separate from annual appropriations, in FY2023, the IRA provided $1.0 billion for NRCS Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA), which is funded through CO. This supplemental funding is directly related to the additional financial assistance funding provided in the IRA for selected farm bill conservation programs. The IRA funding provided for CTA is available through FY2031 and could affect NRCS staffing levels. Other discretionary spending for agricultural conservation is primarily for watershed programs. The largest program— Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations (WFPO)—was funded at $75.0 million in the FY2023 appropriations and $35.0 million in the FY2024 appropriations. The Watershed Rehabilitation Program received $2.0 million in the FY2023 appropriations and $1.0 million in FY2024. Both the FY2023 and FY2024 appropriations included earmarks for specific WFPO projects. In FY2023, earmarks accounted for nearly 28% of appropriated WFPO funds. With the reduction in funding for FY2024, earmarks became 58% of appropriated WFPO funding. Conservation programs funded with mandatory spending do not require annual appropriations. Congress can reduce mandatory spending programs in appropriations through Changes in Mandatory Program Spending (CHIMPS). Congress enacted CHIMPS on agricultural conservation programs every year between FY2003 and FY2018. In FY2023 and FY2024, Congress transferred $60.2 million each year from mandatory conservation programs to fund administrative activities as it has for every fiscal year since FY2019. Agriculture appropriations bills may include policy-related provisions that direct how the executive branch is to carry out the appropriations. The FY2023 and FY2024 appropriations included policy provisions for conservation programs, such as waiving specific programmatic requirements and requiring reports to Congress.