Despite proposing significant cuts to the overall Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget for water programs, the President’s FY 2014 Budget Request for EPA emphasizes that EPA will continue to work with USDA and the states tribes to control nutrient pollution. The budget request gives special attention to the issue of excessive nitrogen and phosphorus loadings […]
Budget and Appropriations
President’s 2014 Budget: Overview and Department of Agriculture
On Wednesday, April 10, President Obama released his budget request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. In this year’s ongoing budget saga, the White House is billing its proposal as a step towards reaching a “grand bargain” with Republicans over taxes and spending. (For more on the “grand bargain,” see a previous blog post.) Over ten weeks […]
Is There a Mega Budget Deal Coming?
At the end of December, Congress extended the current farm bill, but without renewed funding for beginning, minority, organic, specialty crop, and local food farmers; renewable energy; economic development; and disaster assistance. They also punted automatic across-the-board budget cuts until March 1. Then, at the end of January, Congress punted debate over the debt ceiling […]
Ten-Year Budget Plans Move Forward
On Thursday, March 21, the House voted 221-207 to pass its FY 2014 budget resolution, which provides a spending blueprint for the next ten years. The vote saw 10 Republicans join all of the Democrats in opposition. The Senate is currently debating its own FY 2014 budget resolution and voting on lots of amendments. The […]
Final 2013 Funding Bill Clears Congress
On Thursday, March 21, the House of Representatives voted 318-109 to adopt the Senate-passed continuing appropriations resolution, which will fund federal programs through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2013. The House did not make any changes to the bill, as amended and passed by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 73-26. Conservation Stewardship […]
Budget Blueprints Outline Radically Different Paths for New Farm Bill
This week, both the House Budget Committee and the Senate Budget Committee released their respective budget resolutions for fiscal year (FY) 2014. A budget resolution is a non-binding document that outlines a framework for budgeting decisions in the next fiscal year. Normally, the House and the Senate consider budget resolutions after the President has submitted […]
House and Senate Debate 2013 Farm Funding Levels
Late on Monday, March 11, the Senate released appropriations legislation to keep the government running through the remainder of fiscal year 2013. Recall that the House passed its own FY 2013 legislation last week. Overview The Senate bill provides a total of $20.532 billion in discretionary agriculture spending, inclusive of a 2.513 percent “across-the-board” cut. […]
Congress Prepares for Budget Battle as Deadlines Loom
This week and next, the House and Senate move closer to finalizing a funding bill for the remainder of FY 2013. At the same time, both chambers prepare to mark up their respective FY 2014 budget resolutions before an April 15 deadline. Sequestration officially went into effect on March 1, and the current government-funding bill […]
Farmers Travel to DC to Speak Out on Sustainable Agriculture Programs
On March 4 and 5, 60 independent family farmers, ranchers, and sustainable agriculture advocates from 24 states met with more than 105 legislative offices in Washington DC. Participants urged Congress to restore funding for critical sustainable agriculture programs and pass a farm bill that advances the sustainability of agriculture, rural communities, food systems, and natural […]
House Chair Introduces Food and Farm Funding Bill for Rest of 2013
On Monday, March 4, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) introduced legislation to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year (FY). The bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), would replace existing funding legislation, which expires on March 27. Discretionary Spending As expected, the Chairman’s bill includes sequestration cuts, which would reduce […]
Sequester and Beyond – What it Means for Food and Agriculture
Yesterday, the Senate voted 51-49 on the Mikulski-Murray-Reid bill to replace the across-the-board automatic budget cuts (sequestration) of $85 billion for the current year, and reduce the deficit by $110 billion. The measure failed because under Senate filibuster rules, a simple majority is not sufficient and a 60-vote super majority is needed to pass most […]
Senate Prepares to Debate New Farm Bill Proposal in Context of Sequestration Bill
Wednesday night update to original post: Late Wednesday, Senate Republicans coalesced around the package they will offer on the Senate floor on Thursday. Their plan would leave the $85 billion in total budget cuts in place, but instead of requiring across-the-board cuts via the sequester, they propose to give President Obama until March 15 to […]
Time for a Deeper Farm Safety Net Discussion?
The farm bill portion of the Senate Democratic bill to delay the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration has surfaced an interesting debate over numbers. The bill to be presented next week by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would delay sequestration (scheduled to take effect March 1) until next year, in hopes that in the […]
Impact of Sequestration on Agriculture: More than Just Meat
The Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing on February 14, 2013 on the varying doomsday scenarios that will play out should Congress fail to prevent the self-imposed sequestration. The hardline cuts are expected to take effect on March 1 and the damage could begin immediately in some cases. Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack was not present […]
Tentative New Farm Bill Budget Projection
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its first snapshot of the budget projections for 2014 and beyond on Tuesday. The snapshot includes projections for federal farm bill spending. The final version of the projections, which will be published in late March, will be the version that is used for determining the costs and savings of […]
New Budget Timeline – A Way Forward for Farm Bill?
On Thursday, January 31 the Senate approved the bill to postpone the debt ceiling battle for four months. The proposal was developed by the House Republicans. The Senate adopted the House GOP measure by a vote of 64-34, albeit with only 11 Senate Republicans in support. Republican Plan Pushed Over the Top by Democratic Support […]
Budget Debate Takes New Turns, with Unclear Impact on Agriculture
Sometimes Washington spends a lot of time talking about how and when to proceed to looming big issues. And sometimes those process and timing decisions are very important. And sometimes the situation surrounding those process issues is very fluid. This is one of those times. Very quickly after the House GOP decided on a brand […]
New House GOP Debt Ceiling Plan Could Affect Farm Bill
The House of Representatives will vote on Wednesday on a new plan, cobbled together last week, to raise the debt ceiling for several months without demanding any matching spending cuts. The sudden about face on the debt ceiling issue was reached during a House GOP caucus retreat in Williamsburg, VA last week. Instead of dealing […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Is there a Farm Bill Plan B?
Much of the national policy news this week has focused on House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) sudden move, in the middle of negotiations with the President over the so-called fiscal cliff issues, to take time out to have the House vote (this evening) on his “Plan B.” That Plan B would combine votes on tax […]
USDA Invests $33 Million in Pest Management Research
On Monday, December 3, USDA announced over $33 million in funding for research, education, and extension grants that support innovative pest management solutions to address the pest and disease problems farmers face across the nation. These grants were awarded as part of ten separate competitive grants programs administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Farm Bill and Agriculture Appropriations Options Heading Into December
As we close out on two full weeks of the lame duck session of Congress and head into the final three-week December marathon, there has been lots and lots of talk about farm bill options but little-to-no action. By contrast, there has been some action on the appropriations bills to fund the government, including USDA, […]
Election Returns Spell Some Changes for Congressional Agriculture Makeup
With election returns beginning to firm up, it is now clear there will be a modest number of changes to the congressional committees that deal directly with agricultural issues. This post summarizes the basic nuts and bolts of those changes. What the agriculture committees look like for the next session of Congress looms large if […]
FY 2013 Enrollment Deadlines for Conservation Programs May Be Fast Approaching
As the new fiscal year begins, states have begun to set Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 “ranking deadlines” for enrollment in farm bill conservation programs and initiatives. These dates are important for farmers and ranchers to be aware of if they are considering applying for conservation funding. While many USDA conservation programs offer continuous enrollments, meaning […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Farm Bill Expires on Monday — What Does It Mean and What Happens Now?
We have been fielding lots of questions in the past few weeks following the congressional meltdown on the new farm bill. This is not surprising, given Congress’ failure to date to either pass a new farm bill or to enact a short-term extension of the existing farm bill before the farm bill expires at midnight, […]