To Members of the NASULGC Family:

The dust has finally settled on the F.Y. 2004 Agriculture Appropriations bill: House and Senate negotiators have finished work on this and six other appropriations measures and rolled them into an "omnibus" spending package. Unfortunately, the programs funded through this catch-all bill (including all CSREES line items) have been subjected to a 0.59 percent reduction.  This across-the-board-cut is in addition to any reduction made by the House-Senate conference committee.

The omnibus appropriations bill now includes the following bills: (1) Agriculture; (2) Commerce, Justice, State; (3) District of Columbia; (4) Labor and Health and Human Services; (5) Veterans Affairs and Housing & Urban Development; (6) Transportation-Treasury; and (7) Foreign Operations. The package now includes more than half of the 13 appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began on October 1.

Next Steps
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) has notified House members that they should not plan to return to Washington until December  8, at which time they should expect to vote on the omnibus package. Blunt said members should plan to come back on December 8 for just one day of votes and then they can return to their home districts. After that, the House is not scheduled to reconvene until January 20, 2004.

But should those plans fall through, both the House and Senate have the protection of working under a new continuing resolution (CR) that will cover government spending through January 31, 2004. Both the House and Senate have approved a CR (H. J. Res. 79) that will keep federal money flowing through the end of January, regardless of whether or not the omnibus bill passes this year.

Link: F.Y. 2004 CSREES spreadsheet

Fred Hutchison
Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations