Cornerstone Report from Washington

Vol. 7, No. 10 – July 8, 2009

 

Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Major NIFA Program Increases

 

To Members of the APLU System:

- Board on Agriculture Assembly

- Budget and Advocacy Committee

- Council on Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching

- Council on Governmental Affairs (Aggies)

 

The Senate Appropriations Committee marked up the F.Y. 2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill today and provided $124 million in increases for 11 of the 13 National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) lines that the Budget and Advocacy Committee had targeted for enhancement, including a $93.677 million (46.5%) increase for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), NIFA’s flagship competitive grants program.
Table 1.  BAC Lines Targeted for Enhancement Compared to House and Senate Marks

Targeted Enhancements

F.Y. 2009

APLU

House

Senate

Agriculture and Food Research Initiative

201.504

300.000

210.000

295.181

Smith Lever 3(b) and 3(c)

288.548

300.000

295.000

300.000

Hatch Act

207.106

225.000

215.000

215.000

Evans-Allen Program (Research)

45.504

49.000

48.000

49.000

1890 Institutions Extension

40.150

43.000

44.000

41.354

McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry

27.535

30.000

28.000

30.000

Higher Education Challenge Grants

5.654

23.154

5.654

5.654

National Needs Fellowship Grants

3.859

4.500

3.859

3.859

1994 Institutions Extension

3.321

5.000

4.321

4.000

1994 Institutions Research

1.610

3.000

1.610

2.000

Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program

66.155

68.000

68.000

68.139

Children, Youth, and Families at Risk

8.182

10.000

8.396

8.427

New Technologies for Ag Extension (eXtension)

1.500

5.000

1.500

2.000

TOTALS

900.628

1,065.654

933.340

1,024.64


These are tremendous results, and Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) the Chair and Ranking Member of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee (respectively) — and many other senators — deserve a hearty “thank you” from the entire land-grant university system for: (1)  agreeing to or exceeding the system’s recommended funding levels for Smith-Lever, Evans-Allen, McIntire-Stennis, and EFNEP; (2) providing a huge increase for AFRI; and (3) including significant increases to Hatch, 1890s Extension, 1994s Research and Extension, Youth at Risk, and eXtension!

 

Other Developments

Mandatory Programs. In addition to the increases shown above, the Senate Appropriations Committee did not impose any limitations on the $117 million in mandatory Farm Bill funding that goes to four NIFA program lines in F.Y. 2010: (1) Organic Agriculture Research and Extension; (2) Specialty Crop Research; (3) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development; and (4) Biomass R&D.

 

Earmarks. Continuing the trend of recent years, the Senate reduced both the number and dollar value of NIFA special research grants and federal administration research/extension grants. The value of these earmarks would be reduced by $49.269 million compared to F.Y. 2009.

 

Links

Spreadsheet showing Senate (and House) markup results for all NIFA programs:

http://www.land-grant.org/documents/FY2010/NIFA_Senate.xls

 

Concluding Thoughts

The Senate marks are a great step forward for the land-grant system. However, much work remains to be done to preserve these results as the Agriculture Appropriations bill is considered on the Senate floor and a final bill hammered out by the joint House-Senate conference committee. (The bill is not yet scheduled for the Senate floor.) We will be certain to keep you closely informed as developments occur.

 

The Cornerstone Team