Appropriations for FY2005: U.S. Department of Agriculture and Related Agencies

Publication Date: September 2004

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Agriculture, forestry and fishing

Type:

Abstract:

As the first step in the budget and appropriations process, the Administration released on February 2, 2004 its budget request for FY2005. The Administration’s budget contains an FY2005 appropriations request of $82.9 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Related Agencies, which includes all of USDA (except the Forest Service), as well as the Food and Drug Administration and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The House completed action on its version of the FY2005 agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 4766) when it passed the measure with various amendments on July 13, 2004. The latest action to date in the Senate was full committee markup and the reporting of its version of the spending bill (S. 2803) on September 14.

The House-passed and Senate-reported bills are relatively close in total funding levels — $83.22 billion in the House bill and $83.14 billion in the Senate bill, which are approximately $200-$300 million above the Administration request, but $3.4 billion below the FY2004 enacted level. An estimated $66.4 billion, or nearly 80%, of the proposed FY2005 spending is for mandatory programs administered by USDA. Most of the reduction in the total appropriation is primarily attributable to improved farm commodity prices in recent years, which have contributed to a reduction in required mandatory spending for farm commodity support under the 2002 farm bill.

For all discretionary programs, the House and Senate bills contain a recommended FY2005 appropriation of $16.841 billion and $16.772 billion, respectively. This is the category for which appropriators have direct control over annual spending levels. The proposed FY2005 levels in the two bills are close to the $16.839 billion enacted in FY2004, and above the Administration’s FY2005 request of $16.569 billion for FY2005. In order to meet an FY2005 allocation that was close to the FY2004 enacted level, appropriators, as in past years, placed limitations on authorized levels of spending in the 2002 farm bill for various mandatory (nonappropriated) conservation, rural development, and research programs. In total, the House and Senate reduced authorized FY2005 mandatory spending levels by about $1 billion, and applied those savings toward meeting the discretionary allocation.

Among the major program funding differences in the two bills: The Senate bill contains $268 million more than the House for the WIC program, primarily because of a revised Administration estimate of increased WIC needs following House passage. The Senate bill also has more generous provisions for rural development ($43 million more than the House) and foreign food aid programs ($41 million more). The House bill contains higher funding levels than the Senate in provisions for the salaries and expenses of the Farm Service Agency ($52 million more), for discretionary conservation programs ($41 million more), and for animal and plant health programs ($45 million more). The House bill prohibits FDA from enforcing the current law that bans importation of prescriptions drugs by parties other than drug companies. The Senate bill would ease restrictions on travel to Cuba to promote and sell U.S. agricultural products.