As the BRT has reported to you previously, the terrible 302(b) allocation to the Agriculture Subcommittee forced substantial cuts in many Farm Bill authorized/mandatory programs. The attached document also details the reductions suffered by certain CSREES line-items. The attached Excel spreadsheet provides further information. We will provide you with a copy of the committee's report as soon as that becomes available.

In a related matter, we have mounted an extra effort to influence the outcome of the Agriculture Appropriations bill in the Senate. However, given the terrible allocation that the Senate is also living under, the prospects appear difficult at best. We will keep you posted as further developments occur.

Since House and Senate are on the verge of a ten-day recess around the July 4th holiday, we do not expect either House floor action or Senate committee action before mid-July.

The 302(b) Allocations
The House and Senate have made the following “allocations” pursuant to the Congressional Budget Resolution for FY 2004 (all figures are in $Billions):

The Agriculture Subcommittee 302(b) Allocation
The Ag subcommittee allocation is actually much worse than it appears. The “official” release suggests that the allocation is $393 million below last year's level. What the release doesn't explain is that in FY 2003, the House Appropriation Committee limited spending from the Export Enhancement Program (EEP). This action prohibited USDA from spending $450 million, and the “savings” were “given” to the Ag subcommittee as additional spending authority “over and above” the allocation. The EEP program does not exist this year, and so the Committee can not repeat the action. This means that the ACTUAL spending level for the Ag bill this year is $843 million below last year. This translates into a 4.8% reduction.

Agriculture Subcommittee Cuts
As a result, many Farm Bill authorized programs were reduced, including:

-$10 million     Special Research Grants
-$53 million     Elimination of the Conservation Security Program
-$107 million    WIC program
-$25 million     EQIP program
-$56 million     Wetland Reserve Program
-$95 million     Dam Rehabilitation Program
-$98 million     Rural Strategic Investment Program
-$10 million     Rural Firefighters and Emergency Personnel Grant Program
-$213 million    Agricultural Research Service S&E and Facilities (-8.9% reduction)
-$20 million     Broadband Program
-$40 million     Value Added Market Development Grant Program
-$23 million     Renewable Energy program
-$1 million       Alternative Ag Research and Commercialization Revolving Fund
-$0.4 million    Renewable Resources Extension Act

The Subcommittee Action in Context
In light of these cuts and the overall reduction in the agriculture spending bill, the research, education, teaching, forestry, and extension accounts generally fared better than the subcommittee allocation. The aggregate reduction in the subcommittee allocation was 4.8 percent and cuts to some individual programs were substantially greater than that amount.  The overall cut for research, education and extension, on the other hand, was 1.6 percent.

The four accounts of particular interest to the NASULGC family that suffered the greatest reductions included the 1890 Institutions’ capacity building and facilities programs, the Smith Lever Program, and the National Research Initiative. However, the reductions in the NRI are offset by the addition of $16 million to the Integrated Activities account for Homeland Security research.