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1 1 (November 28, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govenob0001 and id is 1 raw text is: L Congressional Research Service ~ Informing the legislative debate since 1914 Updated November 28, 2023 Farm Bill Primer: Programs Without Baseline Beyond FY2024 The one-year farm bill extension during FY2024 (P.L. 118- 22, Division B, §102) provided $177 million of mandatory funding to 19 of the 21 programs without a budget baseline in the 2018 farm bill (Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, P.L. 115-334; Figure 1). Programs that receive mandatory funding do not require annual discretionary appropriations. These 21 programs had received $906 million of mandatory funding during the five years of the 2018 farm bill. From a budgetary perspective, many farm bill programs that receive mandatory funding are assumed to continue beyond the end of their authorization. That is, they have a continuing baseline beyond the end of a farm bill, which gives them built-in future funding if Congress decides that the programs are to continue. If the programs are not continued, the baseline can be reallocated or used as an offset for deficit reduction. Iffarm bill programs without baseline are continued, reauthorizing would then result in a positive score (cost) and would need to be offset by reductions elsewhere for the bill to remain budget neutral. Why Some Programs Have Baseline, Others Not Under budget rules, a program with mandatory spending authority in the last year of its authorization generally may be assumed to continue as if it did not expire and have baseline (2 U.S.C. §907(b)(2)), as explained by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in the annual Budget and Economic Outlook. This is the case for long-standing farm bill programs. Some of the newer, smaller farm bill programs do not continue in the baseline because the authorizing and budget committees did not provide them a baseline to continue. CBO projects future government spending in its official budget baselines but has not published a list of expiring farm bill programs without a continuing baseline. To compile this list, CRS analyzed the CBO score of the 2018 farm bill, current CBO baseline projections, the statutory text of the farm bill, and the text of the extension act, looking for programs that received mandatory funding but do not have baseline for reauthorization (Figure 1). Figure 1. 2018 Farm Bill Programs Without a Budget Baseline After FY2024, by Title Title of the Farm Bill Subtotal of FY2019-FY2023, Subtotal of FY2024 $ M rons * 2018 Farm B, FY2O19-FY2023 1 Extension, FY2024 0 25 50 75 130 125 150 175 230 225 Source: CRS analysis of P.L. 115-334, P.L. 118-22, and CRS Report R45425, Budget Issues That Shaped the 2018 Farm Bill, Table 3. Notes: Programs in P.L. 115-334 are identified as having mandatory budgetary outlays during FY2019-FY2023 but no budget authority beyond FY2023. P.L. 118-22, Division B, § 102 provides funding for most programs without baseline during the one-year extension.

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