House passes budget deal with implications for agriculture
December 13, 2013 | 02:28 PM
The House of Representatives passed a budget deal Thursday that should lead to higher appropriations for Agriculture and related agencies than the House had planned, but also means there will be other cuts in mandatory spending and possible fees for farmers seeking conservation technical assistance.
The House passed the deal worked out by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The vote was 332-94, with 169 Republicans and 163 Democrats voting for it and 62 Republicans and 32 Democrats voting against it.
The Senate is expected to approve the measure next week.
In statements that could have implications for the farm bill vote next month if conservative groups oppose it, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized conservative groups like Heritage Action that opposed the budget deal.
Boehner noted that the groups had criticized the deal before they saw it and when asked whether he was asking them to “stand down,” Boehner said he didn’t care what the groups did.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition noted that the deal reduces mandatory spending through 2023 by $28 billion government wide, but also eliminates $63 billion in automatic sequestration cuts to discretionary spending programs government wide in fiscal years 2014 and 2015. This includes cuts to USDA commodity and conservation programs, although it is difficult to determine the effect of these budget plans through 2023 because programs may be changed or eliminated in the farm bill negotiations.
Under the deal, all appropriations subcommittees including Agriculture and related agencies will get spending allocations for fiscal year 2014 that will probably be somewhere between the previous Senate allocation and the lower House allocation.
The top candidates for spending levels higher than the previous House Agriculture appropriations bill would be the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC and the Food and Drug Administration to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, Ferd Hoefner, the NSAC policy director said today.
Conservation operations may also get more money, Hoefner said, but it is also possible that the appropriators will continue to cut some mandatory conservation accounts to fund other operations.
The bill also got part of its budget savings through a provision that allows USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to charge farmers and ranchers seeking conservation assistance fees of up to $150. NSAC and the National Association of Conservation Districts oppose those fees.
The House passed the deal worked out by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The vote was 332-94, with 169 Republicans and 163 Democrats voting for it and 62 Republicans and 32 Democrats voting against it.
The Senate is expected to approve the measure next week.
In statements that could have implications for the farm bill vote next month if conservative groups oppose it, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized conservative groups like Heritage Action that opposed the budget deal.
Boehner noted that the groups had criticized the deal before they saw it and when asked whether he was asking them to “stand down,” Boehner said he didn’t care what the groups did.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition noted that the deal reduces mandatory spending through 2023 by $28 billion government wide, but also eliminates $63 billion in automatic sequestration cuts to discretionary spending programs government wide in fiscal years 2014 and 2015. This includes cuts to USDA commodity and conservation programs, although it is difficult to determine the effect of these budget plans through 2023 because programs may be changed or eliminated in the farm bill negotiations.
Under the deal, all appropriations subcommittees including Agriculture and related agencies will get spending allocations for fiscal year 2014 that will probably be somewhere between the previous Senate allocation and the lower House allocation.
The top candidates for spending levels higher than the previous House Agriculture appropriations bill would be the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC and the Food and Drug Administration to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, Ferd Hoefner, the NSAC policy director said today.
Conservation operations may also get more money, Hoefner said, but it is also possible that the appropriators will continue to cut some mandatory conservation accounts to fund other operations.
The bill also got part of its budget savings through a provision that allows USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to charge farmers and ranchers seeking conservation assistance fees of up to $150. NSAC and the National Association of Conservation Districts oppose those fees.
