WikiLeaks Document Release http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22086 February 2, 2009 Congressional Research Service Report RS22086 Agriculture and FY2006 Budget Reconciliation Ralph M. Chite, Resources, Science, and Industry Division March 3, 2006 Abstract. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171, S. 1932), which was signed into law on February 8, 2006, contains net spending reductions of $2.7 billion over five years for USDA mandatory programs. Included in the total is a $1.7 billion reduction in farm commodity support program spending, a $934 million reduction in conservation spending, a $620 million reduction in a mandatory research program, and a $419 million cut in rural development programs, as scored by CBO over a five-year period (FY2006-FY2010). The measure also includes a two-year extension of a dairy income support program, at an estimated cost of $998 million. Proposed House reductions to food stamp spending were not included in the final measure. Order Code RS22086 Updated March 3, 2006 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Agriculture and FY2006 Budget Reconciliation Ralph M. Chite Specialist in Agricultural Policy Resources, Science, and Industry Division Summary http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22086 The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171, S. 1932), which was signed into law on February 8, 2006, contains net spending reductions of $2.7 billion over five years for USDA mandatory programs. Included in the total is a $1.7 billion reduction in farm commodity support program spending, a $934 million reduction in conservation spending, a $620 million reduction in a mandatory research program, and a $419 million cut in rural development programs, as scored by CBO over a five-year period (FY2006- FY2010). The measure also includes a two-year extension of a dairy income support program, at an estimated cost of $998 million. Proposed House reductions to food stamp spending were not included in the final measure. What Is Budget Reconciliation? The annual congressional budget resolution provides a blueprint for all federal revenues and spending over a multi-year period. Although it does not require the President's approval, the budget resolution does establish limits for all discretionary and mandatory spending for the coming fiscal year. Once approved, the discretionary spending total is allocated to the appropriations committees, where it is subdivided among their various subcommittees. The resolution also might require reductions in mandatory spending, particularly in years when the federal deficit is expected to be large. When this occurs, the resolution issues reconciliation instructions to various authorizing committees requiring them to report changes to legislation to reduce spending on mandatory programs under the committees' jurisdiction. The reported language from each committee is then sent to its respective budget committee by a date specified in the resolution, where it is packaged with language from other committees into an omnibus reconciliation bill, which is taken to each chamber's floor for consideration. Each chamber's approved reconciliation bill is then sent to a conference committee, and a final conference measure must be approved by both chambers and signed by the President before it becomes law. (For more on budget reconciliation procedure, see CRS Report 98-814, Budget Reconciliation Legislation: Development and Consideration, by Bill Heniff Jr., and CRS Congressional Research Service ~ The Library of Congress CRS-2 Report RL30458, The Budget Reconciliation Process: Timing of Legislative Action, by Robert Keith.) USDA Mandatory Spending Defined Approximately three-fourths of total spending within USDA is classified as mandatory, which by definition occurs outside the control of the annual appropriations process. Currently accounting for the vast majority of USDA mandatory spending are the farm commodity price and income support programs, the food stamp program and most child nutrition programs, the federal crop insurance program, and various agricultural conservation and trade programs. Legislative authority for these programs is under the jurisdiction of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.1 Hence, any reconciliation instructions that are delivered to the agriculture committees could potentially impact spending for any or all of these programs. All of the farm commodity support programs and mandatory conservation and trade programs are funded through the borrowing authority of USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), not by an appropriation to the programs.2 The CCC has a $30 billion http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22086 line of credit with the U.S. Treasury that it taps to provide the annual required funding of these programs, as well as for other purposes. Because the CCC typically spends more than it takes in, its losses must be replenished annually through a congressional appropriation so that its $30 billion borrowing authority is not depleted. Administration and congressional budget forecasters estimate each year the projected cost of the commodity support programs. However, because farm crop prices are highly variable and difficult to estimate, these programs ultimately receive "such sums as necessary" under their farm bill authorization, regardless of budget estimates. The mandatory conservation programs for the most part have a fixed authorization level each year (stated either in dollars or enrolled acreage) as mandated by the 2002 farm bill, with funding from the CCC, not from an appropriation. Like the commodity support programs, crop insurance also receives such sums as necessary regardless of budget estimates. Its funding comes through an indefinite appropriation to the Federal Crop Insurance Fund, a fund separate from the CCC. The mandatory USDA food and nutrition programs (food stamps and child nutrition programs) receive an annual appropriation, but funding levels ultimately are determined by the eligibility rules established in current food and nutrition laws. 1 The one exception is the child nutrition programs, which are under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the House, and the Agriculture Committee in the Senate. 2 The major mandatory farm commodity price and income support programs include those for wheat, feed grains, oilseeds, cotton, rice, peanuts, sugar, and dairy. The largest mandatory conservation programs include the Conservation Reserve Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation Security Program, and the Wetlands Reserve Program. For more background, see CRS Report RS20848, Farm Commodity Programs: A Short Primer; and CRS Report RL32940, Agriculture Conservation Programs: A Scorecard. CRS-3 CBO's Baseline Budget for USDA Each year, the Congressional Budget Office issues a baseline budget for all federal spending under current law over a 10-year period. Projected spending in the baseline budget represents CBO's estimate at a particular point in time of what federal spending and revenues will likely be under current law if no policy changes were made over the projected period. The CBO baseline serves as a benchmark or starting point for future budget analyses. For example, whenever any new legislation is introduced that affects federal mandatory spending, its impact is measured by CBO as a difference from the baseline. Table 1 below represents CBO's most recent official baseline (March 2005) estimate for the major mandatory USDA programs. It represents CBO's estimates under current law (e.g., the 2002 farm bill for the commodity support and conservation programs) given current CBO projections for economic and market conditions for the next five years. Budget reconciliation instructions that are given to the agriculture committees are measured against the CBO baseline. This means that any legislation that the committees are required to report will be scored by CBO against the baseline to determine whether http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22086 the committee is in compliance with the reconciliation instructions. Table 1. CBO's March 2005 Baseline Budget Estimates for Selected Mandatory USDA Programs ($ million) 5-Year total FY2006- FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2010 Farm Commodity 18,099 15,765 13,826 14,059 13,733 75,482 Support Export Programs 230 264 266 300 325 1,385 Conservation 4,343 4,620 4,591 5,344 5,167 24,065 Crop Insurance 3,702 3,839 3,918 3,986 4,066 19,511 Food Stamps 33,445 33,035 33,287 33,911 34,673 168,351 Child Nutrition 12,577 13,140 13,734 14,336 15,036 68,823 Source: Congressional Budget Office. FY2006 Budget Resolution Reconciliation Instructions The House and the Senate approved the conference report (H.Rept. 109-62) on the FY2006 budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 95) on April 28 and April 29, 2005, respectively. The approved resolution contained reconciliation instructions that require the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to report legislation reducing spending on mandatory USDA programs by $173 million over a one-year period (FY2006) and by $3.0 billion over a five-year period (FY2006-FY2010). The resolution did not mandate how the CRS-4 agriculture committees were to achieve the required spending reductions; instead, those decisions were left to the committees. Agricultural Cuts in the FY2006 Reconciliation Act (P.L. 109-171) The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171, S. 1932) includes net reductions of $2.7 billion over five years for USDA mandatory programs. The final law actually contains $3.7 billion in gross reductions to USDA programs. However, conferees also adopted a two-year extension of a dairy income support program (at a two-year cost of nearly $1 billion), which brought the net USDA reductions to $2.7 billion. Included in P.L. 109-171 is a $1.7 billion reduction in farm commodity support programs (achieved primarily through a change in the timing of payments), a $934 million reduction in conservation spending, a $620 million reduction in a mandatory research program, and a $419 million cut in rural development programs, as scored by CBO over a five-year period (FY2006-FY2010). House-proposed reductions to food stamp spending were not included in the conference measure. The process of determining the specifics of the USDA spending reductions began http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22086 earlier in 2005 when the House and Senate Agriculture Committees submitted to their respective Budget Committees their recommendations for cuts, as required by the FY2006 budget resolution. The net USDA cut of $2.7 billion in the final law is below both the House-passed ($3.5 billion) and Senate-passed ($3.0 billion) levels. The following text and Table 2 provide a comparison of the USDA provisions in the final law to what was recommended in the House- and Senate-passed bills. Farm Commodity Programs. P.L. 109-171 achieves most of its reductions to farm commodity spending by changing the timing of farm commodity direct payments without reducing the overall level of payments to farmers. Current program law allows recipients of direct payments to receive up to 50% of their payments in advance of the end of the crop year. P.L. 109-171 reduces the advance payment rate to 40% in the 2006 crop year and 22% in 2007.3 The agreement also includes the elimination of the upland cotton step-2 program effective August 1, 2006, in response to Brazil's successful challenge of the program in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Offsetting just over one-half of the $1.7 billion in farm commodity program savings is a provision in P.L. 109-171 that reauthorizes the expired Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) for two years (until September 30, 2007). Extension was supported by small to moderate-sized dairy farms, which are the primary beneficiaries of this program that makes payments to dairy farmers when market prices fall below a target price. Some farm commodity groups were opposed to MILC program extension, as long as its estimated $998 million cost had to be offset with comparable reductions in other USDA programs. (For more information on MILC, see CRS Issue Brief IB97011, Dairy Policy Issues.) 3 Advance deficiency payments for the 2006 crop year were already disbursed by USDA by the time P.L. 109-171 was enacted in February 2006. Hence, the required reduction in the advance payment rate s from 50% in 2005 to 40% in 2006 could not be achieved. This means all of the estimated savings of $1.452 billion is recognized in 2007 when the advance payment rate falls to 22% as required by P.L. 109-171. CRS-5 Not included in the final law is an across-the board cut in farm commodity payments, which was recommended at different levels in the House- and Senate-passed bills (see Table 2). A Senate provision to extend the authority for the farm commodity programs for four years (crop year 2011), as a means of preserving baseline spending beyond 2010 at the higher pre-reconciliation level of spending, was also deleted by conferees. Some policymakers were concerned that extension of the commodity programs now could signal that the U.S. is not committed to reducing domestic farm subsidies in the Doha round of WTO negotiations. Also deleted in conference was an assessment on sugar loans. Conservation Programs. Among the programs affected by an estimated $934 million reduction to mandatory USDA conservation spending in P.L. 109-171 are: the Conservation Security Program (CSP), the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Spending for the CSP is limited to $1.954 billion over five years (2006-2010) and $5.65 billion over 10 years, for savings of $649 million over the five-year horizon of the reconciliation bill. P.L. 109-171 also prohibits the carryover of any unused mandatory funding for the Watershed Rehabilitation Program that was available as of October 1, 2006, but does not include a House provision to reduce FY2007 or future year funding. EQIP funding is reduced from $1.3 billion per http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22086 year to $1.27 billion in each of FY2007-FY2009. Conferees also extended authority for the CSP through FY2011 and EQIP through 2010. A Senate provision to reduce the Conservation Reserve Program and a House provision to eliminate FY2007-FY2010 funding for the Agricultural Management Assistance Program were both deleted by conferees. (For background on these programs, see CRS Report RL32940, Agriculture Conservation Programs: A Scorecard.) Energy and Rural Development Programs. P.L. 109-171 recognizes savings of $469 million by either reducing or eliminating funding for five mandatory rural development programs and an energy program. All six of these programs were authorized by the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171), and have had some or all of their annual mandatory funding prohibited by annual agriculture appropriations acts over the last several years. (See Table 2 below, and CRS Report RL31837, An Overview of USDA Rural Development Program, for background.) Research Program. Funding for the Initiative for Future Food and Agriculture Systems, a mandatory competitive grant research program, is cancelled for FY2007 through FY2009 in P.L. 109-171, as proposed by the House. Any unused FY2006 programs may not be carried over into FY2007 as well. The current authorized level of $200 million would resume beginning in FY2010. CRS-6 Table 2. Comparison of the Agricultural Provisions in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171) with the House- and Senate-Passed Versions Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Estimate of five-year Savings (-) or Costs (+), million $ House Senate P.L. 109-171 Farm Commodity Support Programs Reduce farm commodity program payments (Senate: cut all payments by 2.5%, 2006-2010 crops; House: cut direct payments by 1% for 2006-2009 -$212 -$1,296 no provision crops). Deleted by conferees. Penalty of 1.2% of loan rate for sugar loan forfeitures (Senate only). no provision - $65 no provision Deleted by conferees Eliminate the upland cotton Step-2 program on Aug. 1, 2006 (House, -$282 - $282 -$282 Senate & Final Law) Reduce advanced direct payments (House: from 50% to 40% in crop years 2006 and 2007; Senate: 50% to 40% in 2006, 29% in 2007-2011, -$513 - $1,088 -$1,452 P.L, 109-171: 40% in 2006, 22% in 2007) Gross Farm Commodity Program Reductions -$1,007 -$2,731 -$1,734 Two-year extension of the MILC Program to Sept. 30, 2007 (Senate and + $998 +$998 P.L. 109-171) Net Farm Commodity Program Reductions -$1,007 -$1,733 -$736 http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22086 Conservation Programs Reduce authorized enrolled acreage in Conservation Reserve Program no provision - $129 no provision (Senate only) Limit spending for Environmental Qualities Incentive Program (Senate no provision - $104 -$75 and P.L. 109-171) Limit authorized spending for Conservation Security Program (House, -$504 - $821 -$649 Senate & P.L. 109-171) Eliminate Agricultural Management Assistance funding for FY2007- -$31 no provision no provision FY2010 (House only) Reduce Watershed Rehabilitation Program (House and P.L. 109-171) -$225 no provision -$210 Total: Conservation Program Reductions -$760 -$1,054 -$934 Energy and Rural Development (RD) Programs Eliminate (House) or Reduce (P.L. 109-171) funds for Renewable Energy -$23 no provision -$20 & Energy Efficiency Prog. Eliminate (House), Reduce (P.L. 109-171) Value-Added Agric. Product -$160 no provision -$120 Market Development Grants Eliminate Rural Business Strategic Investment Grants (House and P.L. -$100 no provision -$100 109-171) Eliminate Rural Business Investment Program (House and P.L. 109-171) -$89 no provision -$89 Eliminate Rural Firefighters and Emergency Personnel Grants (House and -$50 no provision -$50 P.L. 109-171) Eliminate (House), Reduce (P.L. 109-171) Enhanced Access to Broadband -$47 no provision -$40 Telecomm in Rural Areas Total: Energy and Rural Development Program Reductions -$469 $0 -$419 Research: Reduce funding for Initiative for Future Ag & Food Systems -$620 - $227 -$620 (House, Senate and P.L. 109-171) Food Stamps Limit categorical eligibility to recipients of TANF cash assistance, with -$442 no provision no provision exceptions (House only). Deleted by conferees. Increase waiting period for immigrants from five years to seven years, with -$255 no provision no provision exceptions (House only). Deleted by conferees Total: Food Stamp Program Reductions -$697 $0 $0 Gross Reductions (-) in Mandatory Outlays -$3,553 -$4,012 -$3,707 (+) Increases in bills: -Food Stamp hurricane relief (House only). Deleted by conferees. $0 +$50 -MILC Program reauthorization (Senate and P.L. 109-171) +$998 +$998 = Net Reduction in Mandatory Spending Outlays -$3,503 - $3,014 -$2,709