eNEWS
November 2009 > House passes 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Bill
The FY 2010 agriculture appropriations bill was passed by the Senate (76-22) and the House (263-162) Oct. 8, allocating $23.3 billion (about $300 million more than the President requested, but about $300 million less than the Senate bill provided) to fund discretionary food and agriculture programs.
Conservation — As was true of the underlying House and Senate bills, the final bill rejected all of the cuts to farm bill conservation programs proposed by President Obama and Secretary Vilsack with the exception of a $270 million cut in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and a zeroing out of the small watershed dam rehab program.
Research — The bill significantly increases funding for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative from $201.5 million in 2009 to $262.5 million in 2010. The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program received a tiny increase, rising from 19.0 to $19.2 million ($14.5 for research and education, $4.7 million for extension and outreach), the Organic Transitions Research Program is increased from $1.8 million to $5 million, and the Organic Production and Market Data Initiatives is funded at $750,000. There were not cuts to mandatory funding for beginning farmer, minority farmer, organic, or specialty crop competitive grants programs.
Rural Development and Marketing — The bill makes modest increases to rural development and marketing programs. It funds the Value-Added Producer Grant Program at $20.4 million, up from $18.9 million, and the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas at $2.8 million, up from $2.6 million. The Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP) is funded at $9 million, $17 million short of the President’s request but $5 million more than its mandatory level. RMAP will actually have $13 million available next year including $4 million in mandatory funding carried forward from 2009.
Credit — The bill increases funding for direct and guaranteed farm ownership and operating loans above the levels in either the House or Senate bills. The increase was necessitated by the continuing financial crisis and the high demand for government-assisted credit. In 2009, Congress provided increased resources via supplemental appropriations. By increasing the funding now in the regular appropriations bill, they may avoid the need for emergency appropriations next spring.
Child Nutrition — As expected, the appropriations bill includes a measure to extend child nutrition programs by one year, given that Congress failed to reauthorize the programs before they expired on September 30. This move allows Congress to come back to the child nutrition bill next year.
The bill steps beyond the bounds of normal appropriations authority and legislates increases in mandatory spending for child nutrition programs by $148 million, including $85 million in summer feeding demonstration projects, $25 million in grants to states to improve participation in free meals, $5 million in bonus payments to states that encourage breastfeeding, $25 million in grants to schools for kitchen equipment, and $8 million in grants to improve nutrition and physical activities in child care facilities.
The primary reason Congress did not reauthorize the child nutrition programs this year was lack of identified funding to improve the programs. The move by appropriators to authorize new mandatory funding is highly unusual. Whether it was a one-time anomaly or will be repeated remains to be seen.
The values of the new monthly fruit and vegetable vouchers for women in the WIC program were increased to the Institute of Medicine recommended level of $10 and $12 per month although the benefit for children stays at $6 month. The bill also includes $1 million to start-up a pilot project for school gardens under a special component of the Farm to School program added by the 2008 Farm Bill.
Dairy — The bill also includes a $350 million in emergency funding for the dairy industry, the same as the Senate bill. Under the agreement, $290 million would go to farmers as direct payments, and $60 million would go to USDA for the purchase of cheese and other dairy products to reduce dairy surpluses. It will be up to USDA to determine the appropriate per farm payment limitation for the direct payments.
courtesy NSAC
RESOURCES
FY 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Bill full text
NSAC Agriculture Appropriation Chart