Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2015 Appropriations
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Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2015 Appropriations Jim Monke, Coordinator Specialist in Agricultural Policy February 4, 2015 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R43669 Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2015 Appropriations Summary The Agriculture appropriations bill funds the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), except for the Forest Service. It includes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and—in the House and in even-numbered enacted fiscal years—the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The FY2015 Agriculture and Related Agencies appropriation was enacted as Division A of the FY2015 Consolidated Appropriations Act, P.L. 113-235 (December 16, 2014), an omnibus appropriation that included 11 of the 12 appropriations subcommittee bills. Although the fiscal year began under a continuing resolution, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees reported their Agriculture appropriations bills (H.R. 4800 and S. 2389) in May 2014—the earliest joint action in years. The House considered H.R. 4800 on the floor on June 11, 2014, procedurally read through most of the bill, and adopted several amendments. The bill was left unfinished when floor action was suspended due to House Whip leadership changes. The Senate considered a minibus appropriations bill on June 19, 2014, that included the Agriculture bill. But Senate consideration quickly stopped over a disagreement about procedures for amendments. The official, enacted discretionary total in the FY2015 Agriculture appropriation is $20.575 billion, which is $90 million less than (-0.4%) the comparable Senate-basis amount for FY2014 that excludes CFTC. On a House jurisdiction basis that includes CFTC, the FY2015 discretionary appropriation effectively is $20.825 billion, which is $55 million less than (-0.3%) the comparable, official FY2014 amount. Despite the small decrease overall, many agencies receive small increases compared with FY2014. In addition to these amounts, the FY2015 appropriation includes another $116 million of emergency spending that does not count against the discretionary allocation, including $91 million for agricultural conservation and $25 million for Ebola-related activity at FDA. Thus, if the emergency spending is included in the comparison, the Senate-basis spending level that includes emergency appropriations is $26 million greater than the comparable FY2014 amount. Mandatory spending in the FY2015 Agriculture appropriation is $126.5 billion, nearly $2 billion more than FY2014, mostly due to costs in child nutrition (school lunch and related programs). Notable policy riders affecting the Agriculture appropriation this year include a provision to allow white potatoes in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) “food package,” and to require a review of the WIC food package to determine whether white potatoes would remain eligible. Regarding National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, the appropriation requires USDA to allow states to exempt schools that demonstrate a hardship from implementing a whole grain requirement. The appropriation requires scientific evidence before sodium reduction targets can go into effect. And it also prohibits processed chicken cooked in China from being used in the National School Lunch Program and other USDA child nutrition programs. The appropriation prevents the Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration from finalizing proposed rules on livestock and poultry marketing practices, and effectively bans horse slaughter by prohibiting USDA from inspecting horses. Congressional Research Service Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2015 Appropriations Contents Scope of the Agriculture Appropriations Bill .................................................................................. 1 Action on FY2015 Appropriations .................................................................................................. 2 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 5 Administration Budget Request................................................................................................. 5 House Action ............................................................................................................................. 5 Senate Action ............................................................................................................................. 6 Summary of Amounts in the Appropriation ..................................................................................... 7 Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 .................................................................................................. 7 302(b) Subcommittee Allocations ............................................................................................. 7 Comparison of Amounts for FY2015 ........................................................................................ 7 Sequestration Continues on Mandatory Accounts ..................................................................... 9 Funding During the Continuing Resolution .............................................................................. 9 Applicability of House and Senate Report Language .............................................................. 10 USDA Agencies and Programs ...................................................................................................... 16 Departmental Administration .................................................................................................. 17 Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension ................................................................... 20 Agricultural Research Service ........................................................................................... 20 National Institute of Food and Agriculture ........................................................................ 22 National Agricultural Statistics Service ............................................................................ 23 Economic Research Service .............................................................................................. 23 Marketing and Regulatory Programs ....................................................................................... 23 Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service ..................................................................... 23 Agricultural Marketing Service and “Section 32” ............................................................ 25 Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration ............................................... 27 Food Safety .............................................................................................................................. 28 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) .............................................................................. 31 Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) ...................................................................... 33 Farm Service Agency .............................................................................................................. 33 FSA Salaries and Expenses ............................................................................................... 34 FSA Farm Loan Programs ................................................................................................. 36 Commodity Credit Corporation ............................................................................................... 39 Crop Insurance......................................................................................................................... 40 Disaster Assistance .................................................................................................................. 41 Conservation ............................................................................................................................ 41 Discretionary Conservation Programs............................................................................... 42 Mandatory Conservation Programs ................................................................................... 43 Rural Development .................................................................................................................. 44 Rural Housing Service (RHS) ........................................................................................... 44 Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) ...................................................................... 45 Rural Utilities Service (RUS) ............................................................................................ 46 Domestic Food Assistance ....................................................................................................... 52 SNAP and Other Programs under the Food and Nutrition Act .......................................... 52 Child Nutrition Programs .................................................................................................. 53 WIC Program .................................................................................................................... 55 Commodity Assistance Program ....................................................................................... 56 Nutrition Programs Administration ................................................................................... 57 Congressional Research Service Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2015 Appropriations