About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (April 26, 2018)

handle is hein.crs/govzez0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Inf rmi the det sues Farm Bill Primer: Budget Issues Updated April 26, 2018 Farm Bills from a Budget Perspective Congress may soon consider a new farm bill, because the 2014 farm bill (P.L. 113-79) generally expires in FY2018. From a budgetary perspective, many programs are assumed to continue beyond the end of the farm bill, and that provides funding for reauthorization, reallocation to other programs, or offsets for deficit reduction. There are two ways to provide farm bill funding: 1. Mandatory spending. A farm bill authorizes outlays and pays for them with multiyear budget estimates when the law is enacted. Budget enforcement is through PayGo budget rules and baseline projections. 2. Discretionary authorizations. A farm bill sets the parameters for programs and authorizes them to receive funding in subsequent appropriations but does not provide or assure actual funding. Budget enforcement is through future appropriations and budget resolutions. Because mandatory programs often dominate farm bill policy and the debate over the farm bill budget, the rest of this document focuses on mandatory spending. Importance of Baseline to the Farm Bill The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) develops the budget baseline under various laws and follows the supervision of the House and Senate Budget Committees. The CBO baseline is a projection at a particular point in time of future federal spending on mandatory programs under current law. The baseline is the benchmark against which proposed changes in law are measured. When a new bill is proposed that would affect mandatory spending, the cost impact (score) is measured in relation to the baseline. Changes that increase spending relative to the baseline have a positive score; those that decrease spending relative to the baseline have a negative score. Most of the major farm bill provisions such as the farm commodity programs and nutrition assistance have baseline. However, 39 programs that were authorized in the 2014 farm bill with mandatory funding do not have a continuing baseline (see CRS Report R44758, Farm Bill Programs Without a Budget Baseline Beyond FY2018). CBO's April 2018 Base ine The mandatory spending baseline for farm bill programs contains $867 billion over FY2019-FY2028, 77% of which is in the nutrition title for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ($664 billion). The remaining $203 billion baseline is for agricultural programs, mostly in crop insurance, farm commodity programs, and conservation. Other titles of the farm bill contribute less than 1% of the baseline, some of which are funded primarily with discretionary spending. This is the benchmark of available funding from which the House and the Senate may write bills for a new farm bill in 2018. Figure 1 shows the current CBO baseline for farm bill programs over the next 10 years. Figure 2 illustrates the same baseline on an annual basis. Table 1 adds detail at the program level for the farm commodity programs, conservation, trade, and miscellaneous titles. Figure I. Farm Bill Baseline for Mandatory Programs 10-year projected outlays, FY20 I 9-FY2028, billions of dollars Source: CRS, using CBO April 2018 Baseline (unpublished). Figure 2. Farm Bill Baseline for FY2019-FY2028 Annual fiscal year projected outlays, billions of dollars r100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 10 10 653 65.0 64.9 64.9 b55 66.2 67.2 07.9 7.9 80 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 703 6528 2018 2026 2027 0 Crop Insurance U Commodities M Conservation EI 1 Nutrition U Other Source: CRS, using CBO April 2018 Baseline (unpublished). ttps://crsreports.congress.go Trade, 3.6 Misc., 2.4 Hort., 1.5 Energy, 0.6 Research, 0.6 RuralDev, 0.2 Forestry, 0.01

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most